After 95, everyone began to take the ＂youth medicine＂! Is it really effective to sell a capsule to 430 yuan？

Daily hot spot attention is available

A capsule sells for gold.

Text/Time Finance

26,000 yuan per bottle, 60 capsules per bottle, one capsule is about 433 yuan. An anti-aging oral tonic named "Sailerui MAX" has quietly come out of the circle because of breaking through the ultra-high price imagined by consumers.

According to the product label information, the raw materials of Celery MAX include nicotinamide mononucleotide, coenzyme Q10, Siberian pine extract and so on. As the main component of this product, nicotinamide mononucleotide is the hottest anti-aging component NMN (β-Nicotinamide mononucleotide). In human body, NMN is the precursor of NAD+, and its function is embodied by NAD+, so it is known as a "longevity drug" that can delay aging.

In recent years, NMN-related supplements have appeared in the health care products market with the image of "the elixir of youth", and once jumped to the upstart of health care products. The most famous rumor among the people is that Li Ka-shing, the richest Chinese in the past, also took similar products and invested heavily in related enterprises. This has aroused consumers’ curiosity and desire to buy, and according to media reports, many people addicted to NMN began to eat after 90 s, 95 s, and even some after 00 s.

"Anti-aging, anti-tumor, anti-Alzheimer’s disease, anti-alopecia, enhancing sexual function, improving pregnancy ability, protecting eyes, liver and kidney … I am eating it myself, and Chinese does not lie to Chinese." Wang Jun, an agent of NMN health care products, told Time Finance.

According to the Letter on Investigating the Illegal Operation of "Young Drugs" issued by the State Administration of Market Supervision in January, 2021, NMN has not obtained the license of drugs, health foods, food additives and new food raw materials in China, so it cannot be produced and operated as food. Therefore, the existing NMN products on the market are all imported.

Time Finance found that compared with expensive NMN products, the price of NMN raw materials is very low. Some NMN raw material suppliers will even provide the service of making raw material powder into capsule finished products, and the price is half cheaper than that of compliant products with the same dose.

"Because China has not approved NMN as a health food ingredient, its safety has not been verified by authoritative organizations, consumers should be cautious." Zhang Xusheng, a toxicologist of China Toxicology Society and a lawyer of Shanghai Jilu Law Firm, pointed out to Time Finance.

one

A capsule sells for gold.

"Cellerator" belongs to Japan Yuansheng Bio-industry Co., Ltd., and its products include Celleroy PRO, Celleroy MAX, Celleroy NMN Mask and so on. In JD.COM Sailerui’s overseas flagship store, the unit price of other products ranges from 6,000 yuan to 30,000 yuan, except that the price of the mask is less than 1,000 yuan. Among them, Celery MAX has the highest price, which is 26,000 yuan/bottle, a total of 60 capsules. After conversion, the price of a single capsule is as high as 433.3 yuan, comparable to gold.

Time Finance consulted the customer service of JD.COM Sailerui overseas flagship store as a consumer. The other party said, "This product can achieve anti-aging conditioning through four ways: cell rejuvenation, metabolic anti-aging, inflammatory anti-aging, and effective removal of aging cells."

The sky-high price can’t stop the enthusiasm of consumers. According to media reports, since entering the China market through JD.COM International in 2021, Sailerui has harvested a large number of high-net-worth users, and the single-day turnover in many e-commerce activities has exceeded 10 million.

Zhang Hai is one of the performance contributors. "At that time, the NMN component was particularly hot, saying that it had a good anti-aging effect. During that time, I often brushed the products of Sailerui and bought them under the recommendation of my friends. The price is quite high. After eating for a while, I feel that my skin condition and energy have improved. I don’t know if the product works or my psychological effect. " Zhang Hai told Time Finance.

Not only Celery, but also on many e-commerce platforms and social platforms, it can be seen that NMN related products are on sale or are widely recommended, and the prices are also uneven, ranging from 100 yuan to 10,000 yuan.

Time Finance consulted relevant persons in NMN industry as a consumer, and Hu Bing, the raw material supplier of NMN, told Time Finance, "The NMN ingredient is very hot, and naturally a variety of products have increased. At present, this ingredient has not been approved for use in food in China, so it is all imported products, but there are also many fakes circulating in the market."

Judging from the current NMN product prices of major e-commerce platforms, most products are in the price band of 1,000 yuan, while products of 100 yuan and 10,000 yuan are relatively few.

"The prices of products of different brands are naturally different. In addition, the amount of NMN content also leads to differences among products. For example, some products have a content of 10,800 mg and some have a content of 12,800 mg. Generally speaking, the price with high NMN content is higher." Hu Bing said to Time Finance.

However, Time Finance found that there is a huge room for price reduction of NMN products in the case of volume sales.

Time Finance obtained a price list of NMN products from an industry insider who was engaged in NMN product agency in Japan. The price list showed that when the quantity of goods reached 48 bottles, the settlement fees of nine products in the price list were halved.

Take the highest-priced "Xinxing and NMN 9000 (specifications are 60 capsules)" as an example. The price of this product is 345,600 yen (equivalent to about 17,055.36 yuan), and you can get a 30% discount when you take 1~5 bottles, and its agent settlement fee is about 11,938.75 yuan. When you take 6~47 bottles, you can get a 60% discount, and the agency settlement fee is about RMB 10233.22; When you take more than 48 bottles, you can get a 50% discount, and the agency settlement fee will be reduced to 1,000 yuan, which is about 8527.68 yuan.

In addition, the above price list shows that the price of a NMN product with a content of 15,000 mg and a specification of 90 capsules is 9,680 yuan/bottle, and the price of 1-10 bottles is 2,904 yuan/bottle, which directly reduces the unit price by 70%.

2

Raw material suppliers make finished products for sale,

The price is half cheaper

Compared with NMN products that cost thousands or even more than 10,000 yuan, the price of raw materials is much more close to the people.

When Time Finance searched for "NMN raw material" and "β-nicotinamide mononucleotide powder" on Taobao and purchasing and wholesale platform 1688, it was found that the price of 10 grams was only tens of yuan, and the price of the high one was only about 200 yuan, and the larger the quantity, the lower the price. In the 1688 platform store of Shaanxi Zelang Biotechnology Co., Ltd., if you buy 1000 grams of NMN raw material powder with a purity of 99.95%, the price is 1800 yuan, that is, the price of 1 gram is only 1.8 yuan.

Take Celery MAX as an example. The customer service staff of its overseas flagship store in JD.COM told Time Finance that a bottle of Celery MAX contains 60 capsules, each containing 150 mg of NMN, and the whole bottle contains 9000 mg of NMN.

According to the unit price of 1.8 yuan/gram, the price of 9000mg of NMN raw material powder is only 1.62 yuan.

"Compared with NMN products, the price of raw material powder is indeed lower, but because it has not been allowed to be used as a raw material for health care products in China, it generally needs to be exported and then returned to China, which is very expensive." Hu Bing told Time Finance frankly.

In fact, it is a common practice for NMN products to sell gold overseas and then return to China. According to media reports, many manufacturers can provide one-stop service from production to OEM on wholesale websites. Most of their raw materials are purchased from the mainland of China, and β -nicotinamide mononucleotide powder or capsules are processed into semi-finished products in the mainland of China after obtaining the record certificate of export food production enterprises, and then exported to the United States, Japan, Canada and other countries, made into finished products, packaged and transported to bonded warehouses; Some foundries directly transport raw materials to other countries for production.

Although NMN has not been approved as a raw material for health care products in China, Hu Bing told Time Finance that consumers can buy capsules made of raw powder if it is cheap and they don’t mind.

"The NMN content of a capsule is 200 mg. Based on the specification of 60 capsules, the price of a single bottle can be reduced to 260 yuan, and the price of the same specification product with similar content is around 500 yuan." Hu Bing said.

However, this practice may be suspected of breaking the law. Zhang Xusheng told Time Finance that because the regulatory authorities had made it clear that NMN could not be produced and sold as food in China at present, most of the imported NMN health care products on the market are imported into China through cross-border e-commerce channels and purchased by consumers for personal consumption. If domestic merchants directly produce and sell food made of NMN raw materials in China, it does involve violations of relevant regulations.

three

No, is the magic medicine really effective?

The full name of NMN is β-Nicotinamide Mononucleotide, that is, β-nicotinamide mononucleotide. As a naturally occurring biologically active nucleotide, NMN is the precursor of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+) synthesis in human body, and its physiological function is mainly reflected by increasing the level of NDA+.

According to public information, NAD+, also known as coenzyme I, is the coenzyme of hundreds of important metabolic enzymes in human body. Its function in cells is to act as a redox carrier and participate in many important cellular processes as a signal molecule, which is related to energy metabolism, glycolysis and even DNA replication.

In 2013, David Cinclair, a professor of genetics at Harvard Pharmaceutical College, conducted an anti-aging experiment on mice. Through experimental comparison, it was found that external supplementation of NMN can make mice younger, or prolong their life by 10%-20%. Once the research results were published, it attracted extensive attention from the scientific community to NMN.

Up to now, most of the research on NAD+ and NMN has only advanced to the stage of animal experiments. Zhang Xusheng pointed out to Time Finance that due to the lack of short-term and long-term toxicological test data for NMN, its safety as food ingested into human body by mouth has not been verified by authoritative organizations; At the same time, the anti-aging effect of NMN has also been questioned and debated.

Despite the lack of evidence of human safety and effectiveness, this has not prevented the "elixir of youth" from going from the laboratory to the market.

In April 2017, Li Ka-shing invested $25 million in Chroma Dex, a bioscience company focusing on healthy aging. At that time, there were rumors that Li Ka-shing decided to invest after taking the NR (nicotinamide ribose) product produced by Chroma Dex. NR is actually the precursor of NMN, which is the precursor of NAD+.

Under the endorsement of many parties, NMN products have gradually become upstarts of health care products, and are sought after by many merchants and consumers as a new generation of "elixir of youth".

"With the upgrading of domestic consumption and the improvement of health awareness, health care industry has developed rapidly, and NMN products have won the favor of some consumers with their anti-aging gimmicks." Zhu Danpeng, vice president of Guangdong Food Safety Promotion Association, told Time Finance.

Time Finance noted that all NMN products currently on sale are from overseas, and there are no NMN products registered in China. However, many domestic companies make production through overseas registration or acquisition, and then bypass cross-border e-commerce or purchasing channels to enter China. The root cause is that the regulatory requirements for health care products are different in different countries or regions.

Taking the relevant regulations in the United States as an example, the article on the website of NMN House shows that "in the United States, no law clearly stipulates that nutritional and health products need to pass strict safety tests before entering the market. The FDA’s supervision power over nutrition and health products is also limited to the filing system. As long as there is no accident, it will usually turn a blind eye, which will easily cause the products on the market to be confused, making it difficult for consumers to distinguish truly high-quality products. "

A food law consultant who did not want to be named confirmed this view to Time Finance. He said, "The management of dietary supplements, so-called health products, is indeed put on record in the United States, but as for the quality of this system, whether it will produce inferior products is a matter of opinion."

Zhang Xusheng told Time Finance that unlike China’s food supervision system, the food supervision administrative department in the United States does not enforce the pre-marketing registration system of dietary supplements. However, the manufacturer of dietary supplements must self-evaluate the safety of the products to be marketed, or entrust a third party to conduct safety evaluation. Therefore, the safety of health food registered in China has been endorsed by the relevant administrative departments in China; In the United States and other countries, it tends to adopt the enterprise responsibility system, and enterprises are fully responsible for the safety of dietary supplements.

"Strictly speaking, even according to the relevant laws of the United States, dietary supplements containing NMN must be approved in advance for new dietary ingredients (NDI) before they can be legally listed." Zhang Xusheng said.

In January this year, the State Administration of Market Supervision said in reply to the Proposal on Strengthening the Research and Development of New Anti-aging Food (Medicine) Products and Supporting the Healthy Development of Related Industries put forward by Hu Jiqiang at the Fourth Session of the 13th National People’s Congress that at present, the positioning and safety of NMN as a food raw material are not clear, and there is no national food safety standard. It is suggested to carry out safety assessment or clarify the national food safety standard according to new food raw materials. NMN and its related products have not been registered as health food in China, and the conditions for NMN as a raw material for health food are not yet mature, so it is necessary to further strengthen monitoring and research.

Also in January, National Medical Products Administration publicized the information that NMN can be used as a new raw material for cosmetics, which was regarded by the industry as a signal of loose policy. Since the beginning of this year, three companies have obtained new raw materials for NMN cosmetics, namely, Yuyao Raffles, Kangying Red Berry and Shenzhen Vicky.

(Wang Jun, Zhang Hai and Hu Bing are all pseudonyms)

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Original title: "After 95, everyone began to eat" the elixir of youth "! Is it really effective to sell a capsule to 430 yuan? 》