ChromaDex has recently announced that it has agreed a securities purchase agreement for the sale of $25 million of its common stock in a private placement. The private placement was led by an international investor, with ChromaDex agreeing to sell 3,846,153 shares of its common stock at a per-share price of $6.50.
ChromaDex is the manufacturer of the popular supplement nicotinamide riboside (NR), a precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) and a major regulator of energy metabolism. ChromaDex sells its NR via the brand name Tru Niagen.
ChromaDex has proven popular with biohackers
The company has become well known in biohacking and supplement enthusiast circles and has even attracted the attention of actress and fitness guru Brooke Burke, who some readers may know from Dancing with the Stars, which she initially won and then went on to co-host. Interestingly, Brooke Burke is also a self-confessed biohacking geek and is interested in the rising trend of wellness, which includes dietary supplements, fitness, and healthy aging.
Melissa Meyers, Creative Director of the lifestyle blog The Glow Girl, is another popular personality who has been enthusiastic about NR. She is one of a growing number of influencers who embrace aging and give advice on how to age gracefully, or as we like to think of it, how to best cope with the fact we are all slowly falling apart.
Of course, our field has far more ambitious ideas about what to do about aging, but it is good that at least an increasing number of people are getting around to the idea that there are things that they can do to potentially slow aging down. This is not necessarily a bad thing while we wait, as better things are developed that could potentially reverse aging on a cellular level.
It’s likely that we are really not that far away from seeing the first human therapies that target aging; we discuss some of these near-future technologies, drugs, and companies in Looking Forward to a Productive 2021 in Aging Research.
The future of ChromaDex
“With this additional capital, we intend to further our position as the world’s leading NAD+ company with expanded scientific research on nicotinamide riboside (NR) and other NAD+ precursors,” says ChromaDex CEO Rob Fried in his company’s press release. “We will also expand our marketing efforts on our flagship consumer brand, Tru Niagen, the safest and most efficient way to boost NAD+ levels, while continuing to protect our intellectual property against infringers.”
The last part is surely a reference to the legal battle that ChromaDex has been having with rival NR company Elysium. Originally, Elysium was supplied by ChromaDex and used its NR in Basis, one of Elysium’s products; however, the supply arrangement was ended and their relationship unraveled, ultimately descending into legal battles.
In 2018, ChromaDex filed a suit against Elysium for infringement of its NR patent, and this is almost certainly what the last part of its press release statement is referring to. The suit is slated to go to court in September 2021, and we will be following the outcome of that case closely to see if ChromaDex can retain the sole right to manufacture and supply NR.
Legal battles aside, we hope that the future development for NR will include more clinical trials and testing of the supplement, including fair comparative studies alongside other NAD+ precursors.
