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WIRED

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San Francisco, New York

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https://www.wired.com/2016/07/confused-elysiums-anti-aging-drug-yeah-fda/

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https://twitter.com/wired

Short Bio

A RENOWNED MIT aging scientist as cofounder. Not one, not two, but *six *Nobel prize laureates as scientific advisors. Oh, and a product that could just maybe help you stay feeling young. It’s no wonder the dietary supplement company Elysium has attracted attention in an industry not exactly known for scientific rigor. And while Elysium is careful to tout “cellular health” rather than explicit claims about anti-aging—the company’s image is all about scientific rigor—headlines have been quicker to make the leap. One of the main ingredients in Elysium’s supplement, Basis, is a chemical called nicotinamide riboside. It has, in fact, shown promise making mice healthier. No research has shown it to be effective in humans—a fact that Elysium’s cofounders will readily admit. But they’re also out to prove that NR isn’t just snake oil. “We’ve stressed with this company that it is going to be science-based,” says Leonard Guarente, the MIT researcher who cofounded Elysium with former tech investors Eric Marcotulli and Dan Alminana. And so Elysium is currently running a human trial to suss out the effect of NR in older adults. Not that the company is waiting for those results. It’s already touting NR’s benefits for DNA repair and energy, which is perfectly legal under the Food and Drug Administration’s (loose, sketchy) rules about dietary supplements. You can say almost anything you want as long as the claims aren’t about specific diseases. As others have pointed out, Elysium’s supplements business is a savvy way of sidestepping the FDA’s more onerous regulations around drugs. The agency doesn’t even consider aging a disease. Why make a costly, time-consuming bet on FDA approval when you can start selling supplements for $50 a month right away? But another company, ChromaDex, actually is interested in getting FDA approval for NR right now. It wouldn’t be an anti-aging drug—again, aging isn’t a disease—but would instead get approved to treat a rare, genetic disease in kids called Cockayne syndrome … which, yes, has symptoms that look a lot like premature aging. The disease is rare enough that ChromaDex is hoping for an orphan drug designation, a fast track to approval for medicines aimed at diseases that affect very few people.

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6 years 8 months