Irvine-based ChromaDex Corp. is like a surfer on the cusp of a huge wave. Its surfboard is its lead ingredient, Niagen, and the wave is what’s known as the “geroscience” market, which targets the relationship between aging and age-related disease.
The public company, founded in 1999, has reached its inflection point. ChromaDex reported $22 million in revenue for the 2015 fiscal year, an increase of 44%. And, this week the company’s stock started trading on the The NASDAQ Capital Market under the symbol “CDXC.”
Its patented Niagen is the first and only commercially available form of nicotinamide riboside, or NR, a naturally occurring vitamin B3 metabolite found in milk. NR is significant, according to scientific reports, because it’s been shown to dramatically improve cellular energy metabolism by increasing production of a significant enzyme catalyst called NAD+.
Consumers can now get it for the first time since ChromaDex recently scored deals to get Niagen into nutritional supplement brands and onto the shelves of retailers, including Pittsburgh, Penn.-based GNC and Bentonville, Ark.-based Walmart.
While antiaging supplements have typically been viewed skeptically, and some have been outright scams, ChromaDex has invested millions of dollars in research to develop credible science demonstrating NR’s effectiveness in preventing cellular energy dysfunction, according to co-founder and Chief Executive Frank Jaksch.
The company took a major step in validating the science when it presented data last year from its first human clinical study.
The Science
NAD+ enhances the performance of mitochondria, which are the powerhouses of cells. It’s in mitochondria that macronutrients are converted to energy that cells can use, according to Jaksch, whose background is in biology and chemistry. Mitochondria also play an important part in the aging process. NAD+ levels decline as humans age, leading to mitochondrial dysfunction and a decrease in cellular energy metabolism. Niagen’s target demographic includes baby boomers and beyond, Jaksch said.
Milestones, Deals
ChromaDex presented preliminary results from the human clinical study at an experimental biology conference last summer in Germany. The results demonstrated that a single dose of Niagen could elevate NAD+ in the blood by almost three times, and that it’s safe, Jaksch said.
Niagen received a key regulatory approval known as a New Dietary Ingredient Notification status from the Food and Drug Administration in November, a status that validated its safety, Jaksch said.
“Achieving NDI status is a significant milestone, given that the FDA objected to approximately 88% of NDI notifications in fiscal year 2014,” he said.
Also late last year ChromaDex announced a joint development agreement with Cincinnati, Ohio-based Procter & Gamble, which now has exclusive rights to Niagen for use in existing and future consumer products, Jaksch said.
Niagen cleared another significant regulatory hurdle in January when it achieved the Generally Recognized As Safe designation, which allows its use in food products.
Getting Niagen into big-box retail stores meant convincing “branded-supplement” companies to include the ingredient in their products, Jaksch said. Two deals helped catapult it out of the laboratory and onto the shelves of thousands of retailers across the country.
ChromaDex partnered with Greg Horn, president of Florida-based Specialty Nutrition Group, which was looking to launch innovative products at GNC, a national supplements retailer, under its F1RST brand and thought Niagen would be ideal, according to Horn.
Next came a deal with Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based BPI Sports. BPI will have exclusive rights to introduce supplements featuring Niagen at several retailers, including Walgreens, Walmart and Minneapolis, Minn.-based Target.
Any company that wants to use NR in its supplements must go through ChromaDex; it holds all of the patents and thus acts as the gatekeeper.
Future Possibilities
Niagen is also poised to have an impact on “healthspan,” the time a person stays at peak health before aging-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and cancer can develop.
The company already has started two collaborative clinical studies, one at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark that’s investigating obesity and diabetes, and another at the University of Colorado-Boulder that’s studying the physiology and metabolism of aging.
Another potential use of NR is treatment of concussions and brain injury. ChromaDex recently announced a research project with Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota Clinical and Translational Science Institute for a study to assess the effect of NR on the brains of college football players. It will be the first study to determine whether NR raises NAD+ in human brains. If so, it would present an opportunity to manage football-related concussions and other forms of traumatic brain injury, since concussions lower NAD+ in the brain.
