Elysium Health
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Dietary supplements |
| Founded | 2014 |
| Founder | Leonard Guarente, Eric Marcotulli, Dan Alminana |
| Headquarters | New York City, New York, U.S. |
| Website | elysiumhealth |
Elysium Health is a dietary supplement company founded in 2014 by biologist Leonard Guarente, Dan Alminana, and Eric Marcotulli.[1] The next year, the company started selling a dietary supplement called Basis that packages two supplements, nicotinamide riboside (NR), a form of B vitamin found in yeast, and pterostilbene, a polyphenol found in blueberries, into one capsule.[2] The company says that these two ingredients help cells make nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and that they stimulate sirtuins, and is pursuing a similar "anti-aging" marketing path as did Sirtris Pharmaceuticals with resveratrol.[2][3]
Elysium has tried to differentiate the product within the dietary supplement industry as being more scientific and exclusive, by means of the product's minimalist packaging, by not selling the product in drug stores but rather only through its website, and by getting six Nobel prize winners to join its scientific advisory board.[4][5][6] Like other companies in the supplement industry, Elysium marketed the product heavily on social media.[1] It buys the ingredients in Basis from a company called ChromaDex, that as of December 2016 sold the two ingredients to other supplement companies that also marketed products containing them.[1][4][7][8]
By selling the product as a dietary supplement, Elysium is able to avoid the lengthy process of FDA drug approval, but is restricted from marketing it as treating any disease or condition.[4] The FDA doesn't consider aging a disease, but the main ingredient in Basis, nicotinamide riboside, has been submitted for FDA approval by ChromoDex as a way to treat a rare, genetic disease in kids called Cockayne syndrome, which has symptoms similar to aging.[4] Along with at least 12 other human trails,[9] Elysium Health has conducted their own human clinical study to study the efficacy of their product in increasing NAD+ levels.[6][9] The two companies had an agreement under which Elysium Health didn't have to acknowledge Chromadex as the source of the ingredients, but then after Elysium recruited the head of manufacturing from Chromadex and allegedly stopped paying Chromadex, Chromadex sued Elysium and the information became public.[9]
Elysium is one of several companies founded at around the same time by people with backgrounds in the tech industry and Silicon Valley who saw opportunities in the health and biomedical industries, often focused on anti-aging.[1][10][11]
As of December 2016, Elysium had raised $26.2 million from investors including General Catalyst and Robert Nelson from ARCH Venture Partners.[8]
References
- ^ a b c d Wallace, Benjamin (August 23, 2016). "An MIT Scientist Claims That This Pill Is the Fountain of Youth". New York Magazine.
- ^ a b Weintraub, Karen (February 3, 2015). "The Anti-Aging Pill". MIT Technology Review. Retrieved 5 February 2015.
- ^ Stipp, David (March 11, 2015). "Beyond Resveratrol: The Anti-Aging NAD Fad". Scientific American Blog.
- ^ a b c d Zhang, Sarah (July 6, 2016). "The Weird Business Behind a Trendy "Anti-Aging" Pill". Wired.
- ^ Weintraub, Karen (January 6, 2017). "Critics Blast Star-Studded Advisory Board of Anti-Aging Company". MIT Technology Review.
- ^ a b Vinluan, Frank (6 December 2016). "First Clinical Trial Done, Elysium Lands $20M for Health Supplements". Xconomy.
- ^ Lowe, Derek (25 April 2016). "Subtle Changes Can Be Yours, for Fifty Dollars a Month". In the Pipeline.
- ^ a b Buhr, Sarah (December 6, 2016). "Anti-aging pill startup Elysium Health inks at least $20 million in Series B funding". TechCrunch.
- ^ a b c Buhr, Sarah (January 16, 2017). "A new lawsuit alleges anti-aging startup Elysium Health hasn't paid its sole supplier". TechCrunch.
- ^ Friend, Tad (April 3, 2017). "Silicon Valley's Quest to Live Forever". The New Yorker.
- ^ de Magalhães, JP; Stevens, M; Thornton, D (November 2017). "The Business of Anti-Aging Science". Trends in biotechnology. 35 (11): 1062–1073. doi:10.1016/j.tibtech.2017.07.004. PMID 28778607.
