Elysium Health is an American manufacturer of

dietary supplements A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources or that are synthetic in order ...

based in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

History

Elysium Health was founded in 2014 by

biologist A biologist is a scientist who conducts research in biology. Biologists are interested in studying life on Earth, whether it is an individual cell, a multicellular organism, or a community of interacting populations. They usually speciali ...

and director of the Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at MIT

Leonard Guarente Leonard Pershing Guarente (born 1952) is an American biologist best known for his research on life span extension in the budding yeast ''Saccharomyces cerevisiae'', roundworms (''Caenorhabditis elegans''), and mice. He is a Novartis Professor o ...

Ph.D., Dan Alminana, and Eric Marcotulli to develop health products based on advancements in scientific research market

. In 2015, the company launched publicly and introduced its first product, Basis, which contains

nicotinamide riboside Nicotinamide riboside (NR, SR647) is a pyridine-nucleoside and a form of vitamin B3, functioning as a precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide or NAD+. Chemistry While the molecular weight of nicotinamide riboside is 255.25 g/mol, that o ...

and

pterostilbene Pterostilbene () (trans-3,5-dimethoxy-4-hydroxystilbene) is a stilbenoid chemically related to resveratrol. In plants, it serves a defensive phytoalexin role. Natural occurrence Pterostilbene is found in almonds, various ''Vaccinium'' berries ( ...

. The company is widely described as being in the

anti-aging The anti-aging movement is a social movement devoted to eliminating or reversing aging, or reducing the effects of it. A substantial portion of the attention of the movement is on the possibilities for life extension, but there is also interest in ...

field. Elysium is one of several companies founded at around the same time by people with backgrounds in the tech industry and

Silicon Valley Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo Count ...

who saw opportunities in the health and biomedical industries, often focused on anti-aging. In 2015, the company started selling Basis, a supplement designed to slow aging at the cellular level. In 2019, Elysium launched Index, a test that uses

epigenetic In biology, epigenetics is the study of stable phenotypic changes (known as ''marks'') that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence. The Greek prefix '' epi-'' ( "over, outside of, around") in ''epigenetics'' implies features that are " ...

analysis on saliva samples to calculate a biological age. In 2020, Elysium launched a new supplement called Matter, a B-vitamin complex, with

bilberry Bilberries (), or sometimes European blueberries, are a primarily Eurasian species of low-growing shrubs in the genus '' Vaccinium'' (family Ericaceae), bearing edible, dark blue berries. The species most often referred to is '' Vaccinium myrt ...

and

omega-3 fatty acid Omega−3 fatty acids, also called Omega-3 oils, ω−3 fatty acids or ''n''−3 fatty acids, are polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) characterized by the presence of a double bond, three atoms away from the terminal methyl group in their che ...

s, intended to slow brain atrophy as one ages, based on a study called VITACOG done at the University of Oxford. In October 2021, Elysium launched a supplement called Format, which is described as anti-aging and claims to support the

immune system The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as Tumor immunology, cancer cells and objects such ...

Criticism

The company has been criticized for using its advisory board to lend credibility to its product and for heavily marketing their product on social media.

Litigation

Elysium originally bought the ingredients in Basis from

ChromaDex ChromaDex is a dietary supplement A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sou ...

, which as of December 2016, sold the two ingredients to other supplement companies that also marketed products containing them. The two companies had an agreement under which Elysium Health did not have to acknowledge ChromaDex as the source of the ingredients, but then after Elysium recruited the VP of business development from ChromaDex and reportedly stopped paying ChromaDex, ChromaDex sued Elysium and the information became public. In September 2018,

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native ...

and ChromaDex sued Elysium for infringing on patents for nicotinamide riboside. In August 2020, W.R. Grace and Company also sued Elysium for infringing on their patents for crystalline nicotinamide riboside. In September 2021, the claims by Dartmouth and ChromaDex were dismissed by a U.S. district judge, essentially invalidating their patents.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official site
Nutritional supplement companies of the United States Life sciences industry Companies based in New York City Companies established in 2014 2014 establishments in New York City