Called TruCardia, the line is launching a clinic called the Hypertension Institute in Nashville, TN run by Dr Mark Houston. Clinical data on the products’ performance will be gathered in the clinic, said Thorne CEO Paul Jacobson. The clinic is part of the Consortium for Southeastern Hypertension Control, treating more than 20,000 patients each year.
“Over 15 years of clinical research, experience, and clinical application have gone into the development of the TruCardia suite of nutritional supplements,” Houston said.
Bodi Zhang, MD, PhD, Thorne’s general manager of strategic alliances, said the new line resulted from a database screening process and an extensive literature search to find the most efficacious ingredients. The line consists of products branded as LipoCardia (the first to launch), a nutritional supplement to help maintain healthy lipid levels. Three additional products will be launched in the first half of 2014: CardioPressin, a nutritional supplement to support normal blood pressure levels, ArterioCare, a nutritional supplement to support coronary artery blood flow and endothelial function to help maintain cardiovascular health, and MitoBio, a nutritional supplement that the company says will help promote a healthier dynamic heart, enhance cardiac myocyte function, and promote mitochondrial biogenesis and function.
In addition to offering high-quality nutritional supplements, Jacobsen said the TruCardia development will also support efforts in cardiovascular research and provide specialized physician and patient education programs in cardiovascular health and prevention and the treatment of cardiovascular disease.
“Dr Houston will be doing blood work on the patients in his clinic following the use of the products so that we will get a really good idea of how they work,” Jacobson said.
Healthy blood lipid profiles
The first product, LipoCardia, is meant to address multiple metabolic pathways that affect blood lipid levels, Zhang said. The product includes a range of ingredients including a phytosome form of curcumin, red yeast rice, niacin, quercitin, luteoloin, lycopene, a physotome form of green tea and resveratrol as well as berberine, garlic and phytosterols. Fitting efficacious doses of those ingredients into capsules is a challenge, which is why the initial formulation of the product calls for a dosage of 10 capsules a day.
“We are operating under the assumption that if the products really work—and this is after conversations with many doctors—and they work without side effects that this is a significant new contribution to the field and that people will take these many capsules,” Jacobson said. “There is no doubt pill fatigue is an issue and we are working on new technologies to lessen the number of capsules. But to start we are really more interested in proving they work than in massive sales.”