Under the new deal, Tru Niagen will be available to WELL’s network of pharmacies, which includes Pure Pharmacy, and other allied clinics.
“The WELL Health team has invested a great deal of time gaining an understanding of the science behind Nicotinamide Riboside and ChromaDex as a company. We feel our special product, Tru Niagen, is in good hands,” says ChromaDex CEO Rob Fried.
Yesterday, the supplement was introduced by Dr Charles Brenner, chief scientific advisor at ChromaDex, to attendees of a conference for British Columbia physicians at The Fairmont Waterfront in Vancouver.
WELL, a publicly traded company on the Toronto stock exchange, describes itself as a company “focused on consolidating and modernizing clinical and digital assets within the primary healthcare sector.” It is the largest single chain of primary healthcare clinics in British Columbia.
One of WELL’s backers is the Hong Kong-based tycoon Li Ka-shing, through his investment arm Horizon Ventures, which has also invested in ChromaDex.
Next step in Canadian distribution
This new partnership comes four months after ChromaDex announced that Health Canada, Canada's health authority, has approved the sale of Tru Niagen, a branded form of nicotinamide riboside, on Canadian soil. The recommended uses for Tru Niagen, as listed on Health Canada's database of approved health claims, include ‘Helps in energy metabolism and tissue formation,’ ‘Helps maintain the body's ability to metabolize nutrients,’ ‘Helps to prevent Vitamin B3 deficiency,’ ‘Source of vitamin B3 which maintains blood NAD+ levels, to support cellular health,’ and more.
Fried characterized this deal with WELL as an important milestone in ChromaDex’s global expansion strategy, adding that WELL will grant ChromaDex access to key influential groups in British Columbia such as MDs, naturopaths, and pharmacists.
The first wave of distribution will go to pharmacies connected to or in close proximity to WELL’s network of health clinics, a ChromaDex spokesperson told us. The second wave is naturopath that purchase dietary supplements from those pharmacies.
“WELL is focused on improving healthcare and driving preventative health across Canada through technology and scale,” said Hamed Shahbazi, WELL’s Chairman and CEO. “To date, with the support of Mr. Li Ka-shing, we have already become British Columbia’s largest network of primary care clinics and one of the most significant EMR hosting providers in the province.”
“Our latest launch of patient centric technology is not related to software or hardware, it is Tru Niagen which clinical evidence indicates supports the healthy ageing process,” Shahbazi noted.
