In late September, a select group of people gathered in Gstaad, a posh ski town in the Swiss Alps, for the fifth annual Longevity Investors Conference. Researchers and founders demoed new products, while venture capitalists and CEOs scouted out fresh partnerships.
Would-be investors were largely looking for short-term wins, not far-off moonshots. They want products that can realistically be used in the next several years, like at-home red light therapy panels and scaleable blood tests that can measure aging.
This year, the conversation quickly turned to the supplement du jour, the compound that has drawn investment from both Nestlé and L’Oréal: Urolithin A.
Derived from an antioxidant found most abundantly in pomegranates, it is what gastroenterologists call a “postbiotic” — something our guts produce in small amounts after digesting foods, including berries, walnuts, and pecans, which contain bioactive compounds called ellagitannins. Recent studies suggest few of us (40% at best) have the microbiome to produce good amounts of urolithin A from our diet.
Short-term studies have found that urolithin A supplements can help worms live longer, mice run longer, and humans get stronger. There’s also reason to believe that topical creams and serums could do something similar for your skin, increasing firmness and bringing back some youthful elasticity.
This is a saturated market. There’s no shortage of supplement companies putting out their own compounds and conducting studies, vying for the attention of deep-pocketed investors.
Urolithin A — in particular, the supplement company Timeline, which is exclusively focused on an expensive and patented form of this compound — is rising above the fray.
The company’s magic sauce combines smart branding, enticing data from well-controlled clinical trials, and the fact that this compound has proven effective in a full spectrum of products, from skincare to smoothie powder. Timeline’s research has also opened new avenues to developing antiaging pharmaceutical drugs.
Discovering a compound with huge business potential
Urolithin A is a promising antiaging compound because it promotes “mitophagy,” a cleanup process that keeps our cells healthy and youthful. It refreshes our mitochondria, which kicks cells into action.
Timeline’s founder and CEO, Chris Rinsch, went all in on urolithin A back in the early 2000s. Rinsch, a molecular biologist and former biotech VC, was impressed by early lab research that showed pomegranates’ effect on cell rejuvenation. He had an educated hunch that this postbiotic could have huge potential as a wellness product.
Starting in 2008, Rinch’s supplement company, Amazentis, funded over a dozen studies on urolithin A, including some relatively large, placebo-controlled trials in people — a rarity in supplement research.
“The intention was to really bring the rigor of science coming from the biotech industry to the nutrition space because we felt there could be some really important innovations, particularly in this field of longevity,” Rinsch told Business Insider.
Right away, in-house and independent researchers were impressed with the nutraceutical effects.
“It was a dream compound to work on,” Johan Auwerx, one of the first independent consultants who worked with Amazentis on urolithin A, said.
Auwerx, now a consultant for Timeline (and a few drug companies), is an academic research scientist who studies metabolism and mitochondria. He’s worked on industry-disrupting antiaging supplements before, including once-buzzy resveratrol and NAD+ boosters, the hot new supplement that elite biohackers and celebrities are taking for longevity.
He found evidence that urolithin A could not only extend life and improve fitness in animal models but also improve strength in adults from age 40 to 90. That is unusual because what works in animals rarely translates so seamlessly to humans.
It was enough to run with. In early 2020, Rinsch launched the supplement brand Timeline at Davos. The company started out with a powder supplement meant to be eaten in yogurt and smoothies. Timeline has since added oral capsules (around $100 for a one-month supply), face creams ($250 for a bottle of day cream), and a serum ($280 per bottle).
Rinsch said the company’s sales were up 100% last year. They are projected to double again by the end of 2024.
Longevity researchers, while quietly impressed, urge caution
A lot of Timeline’s success can be attributed to marketing. It has become a favorite of longevity influencers with huge followings in the US; Timeline partners with stars including Bulletproof Coffee founder Dave Asprey, longevity guru Dr. Mark Hyman, and Gwyneth Paltrow’s functional medicine coach, Will Cole.
Urolithin A has also captured the attention of longevity researchers, who are typically more skeptical about products promising to make you young again. Timeline was on the agenda at this year’s ARDD, an annual longevity research conference held in Copenhagen in August.
Dr. Dominic Denk, a cancer researcher at Frankfurt University Hospital in Germany, told Business Insider on the sidelines of ARDD that he believes “pretty much all dietary supplements don’t work.” Urolithin A surprised him, though. He studied how urolithin A impacted cancer treatments in mice and was so impressed by the positive results that he did a follow-up study, testing its impacts on aging in healthy people.
“People just tell me they feel more sharp, more refreshed, less out of breath,” Denk said.
Pretty soon, he started taking Timeline himself in a bid to keep his muscles healthy and strong and avoid some of the chronic inflammation that is a hallmark of so many age-related diseases and illnesses, from cancer to the flu.
He cautioned that he “wouldn’t recommend people throughout all continents just take the stuff.” Human studies of Timeline’s urolithin A have been conducted on wealthy, white populations, chiefly in Switzerland, so we don’t know for sure how effective this would be for everyone. Most of the trials have only lasted for a few months.
The lack of long-term data makes some researchers less certain about the true benefits of this buzzy supplement.
Andrea Maier, a leading longevity supplement researcher and doctor who has no affiliation with Timeline, said it’s not clear what dose of urolithin A is best, for how long, or what the long-term effects, negative and positive, might include. Even though she thinks the supplement might hold promise for antiaging and is “quite safe,” she’d like to see more research.
“We cannot really say much,” Maier, who is a professor at the National University of Singapore, and who also runs two longevity clinics, said. “For me, not ready for prime time, neither for clinical practice nor really consumer use.”
Auwerx doesn’t take Timeline supplements and agrees more research is needed, but he said he could imagine trying them if he were older and not as strong or sharp as he is now.
Why are skincare and food giants interested in this compound?
It’s an unusual business model for a supplement company to focus on only one compound, but Timeline has investments from Nestlé and L’Oréal, the biggest food and cosmetics brands in the world.
Both are looking to build out their product lines for the growing set of longevity-seekers poised to spend big in the coming years, hoping to improve their health and prevent the declines that often come with old age.
Auwerx said that speaks to the rare versatility of this supplement.
“I’m telling you, every tissue where mitochondria are important, you could see a use for urolithin,” Auwerx said. “But it should be tested.”
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