Cornell grants ChromaDex worldwide rights to novel manufacturing process for nicotinamide riboside

Jul 14 2011

ChromaDex Corp. (OTCBB.:CDXC) today announced that Cornell University has granted the natural products company ChromaDex exclusive worldwide rights to a novel manufacturing process for nicotinamide riboside (NR).

"Despite its potential to deliver significant health benefits, nicotinamide riboside, or NR, is currently not available to the market as a dietary ingredient," said Frank L. Jaksch, Jr., CEO of ChromaDex. "The technology we have licensed from Cornell provides a cost-effective, commercially viable manufacturing process for NR, thereby solving the key barrier to entry.  This provides ChromaDex with the opportunity to launch yet another novel, proprietary ingredient that shows great promise for health and wellness."

NR, a recently discovered vitamin found naturally in milk, is a more potent version of the more commonly known niacin(vitamin B3). As such, this compound shows tremendous promise for human health.  Like niacin, NR is a precursor to nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD), which is elevated by a calorie restricted diet. Increasing cellular NAD has demonstrated cell-protective and positive metabolic effects. In laboratory tests, NR has shown promise for improving cardiovascular health, glucose levels and cognitive function and has demonstrated evidence of anti-ageing effects.

"We chose NR as a largely unevaluated molecule for the purpose of enhancing cellular NAD levels, and our published scientific work has verified that NR is perhaps the most potent NAD enhancing agent ever identified," said Dr. Anthony Sauve, Associate Professor of Pharmacology at Weill Cornell Medical College and a leading expert in NAD metabolism and NAD signaling enzymes such as sirtuins.  "I am pleased that NR will be more widely available so that its properties as a pro-health substance can be more fully appreciated."

To facilitate commercialization of NR, Dr. Sauve developed the most efficient synthesis of this compound available, and this synthesis enables large quantities of NR to be produced for a variety of potential uses.