• by Les Luchter , Staff Writer, February 12, 2026

 

“BV [bacterial vaginosis] ruined sex for me and made me so scared to have sex with my boyfriend,” says Daniella Levy, Happy V’s founder and CEO, in a candid TikTok videothat’s become a main marketing tool for the women’s health supplement brand. “I'd have the fishy odor, the unusual discharge. I just could not bear to be intimate with him.”

That boyfriend’s family, though, turned out to manufacture dietary supplements, leading to the launch of Happy V in 2019.

Not long after, Levy posted her video for the first time. Done without much expectation, she tells Pharma & Health Insider, the post received 1 million views in a day and “the engagement was very high.”

Since then, she says, “we’ve remade the video several times.”

To date, Happy V reports, the videos have reached 40 million viewers, been played 185 million times, garnered 198 million impressions, and generated over $20 million in sales at HappyV.com.

In addition to organic posting, Levy reveals, iterations of the video have also been used by affiliate marketers and in Happy V’s paid advertising over such platforms as Meta, Google, TikTok and YouTube.

Happy V, which since launching its initial BV prebiotic/probiotic has expanded into other women’s health categories, is playing in a huge market that includes both prescription and OTC products.

BV affects more than 21 million America women annually, Levy notes, and is ” the number one most common vaginal infection that a lot of women have never heard of…until they have it.”

Globally, the BV market was worth $1.3 billion in 2024, with 40% of that in North America, reports Strategic Market Research (SMR). The categoy is expected to grow to $1.8 billion by 2038, SMR said,

Probiotics like Happy V’s accounted for 15% of the business in 2024. SMR says, with antibiotics like Metronidazole and Clindamycin making up 60% of the biz, and OTC topical treatments and prescription oral meds making up the rest.

“Probiotics have been gaining traction as a natural alternative to antibiotics,” SMR says in a rundown of key market trends, “Probiotic-based therapies aim to restore the balance of the vaginal microbiota, thereby reducing the recurrence of BV without the risk of antibiotic resistance.”

Major BV players in the prescription space include fellow online player Evvy, as well as major pharma firms Pfizer, Bayer, AbbVie, Hologic and Merck

In the supplement space, Levy says her competitors include  Love Wellness, O Positiv and Garden of Life.

Two factors that distinguish Happy V from others is that “We use clinically studied probiotic strains at their effective dosages, and we own our own manufacturing -- so we’re vertically integrated, which 99.9% of supplement brands are not.”

The Happy V BV product is designed to be taken “following the antibiotics that have typically been healthcare providers’ method of treating BV,” she says.  Then, “you should be on it for three to six months in order to prevent it from happening again.”

After seven years, Happy V, which Levey founded straight out of college, is still self-funded and has served more than 500,000 women.

The target demo is women 25 to 45+, Levy says, adding that. “BV is not specific to one age demo, it can happen to you at any stage of life.  Young women can get it.  Pregnant women can get it. Women going through menopause can get it.”

Happy V products are sold mostly on its own website via Shopify, with Amazon being the second largest channel, and a third outlet being added recently: TikTok Shop.

The latter is promoted through text on Levy’s enduring viral video on the same platform.

Oh yes, since formulating Happy V’s prebiotic/probiotic in a bid to solve her own problem, Levy says she hasn't had another outbreak. She also still seems to have the same boyfriend.