Dr. Oz and Bryce Wylde Recommend Two Supplements Sold by ChromaDex

Submitted by Mike Anthony as part of our contributors program.

Dr. Oz recently highlighted two antioxidants produced by California-based ChromaDex (OTC: CDXC) on his national television show last week. Adding to the steady media coverage that has contributed to the company’s double-digit sales revenue growth, including a major Canadian endorsement by Bryce Wylde, Dr. Oz’s show is a major milestone for the rising sales trend. The clip from the Dr. Oz show can be viewed here:

Dr. Oz’s afternoon TV show during the week of January 14, 2013 contained a segment entitled “The Life-Extending Power of Antioxidants” which aired in all major U.S. markets. Dr. Oz highlighted two antioxidants, pterostilbene and cyanidin 3-glucoside (C3G). Although Dr. Oz does not endorse specific brands, ChromaDex has a near-monopoly of the market for the antioxidants and holds the vast of their patents and intellectual property. Indeed, ChromaDex is the leading supplier of these antioxidants in the U.S. and has sold millions of dollars worth of vitamins and extracts containing these two antioxidants. A powerful voice in the health world, Dr. Oz’s focus on these two antioxidants in which ChromaDex has near total market control promises to drive sales growth.

America’s Dr. Oz Joins Canada’s Bryce Wylde

Earlier this month, Canada’s national TV network, aired a significant endorsement of pterostilbene and C3G by the country’s most famous doctor, Bryce Wylde. Independently confirming the health claims of the antioxidants sold by ChromaDex, Bryce Wylde’s “CTV” segment preceded Dr. Oz’s segment. The clip can be viewed here:

Chromadex manufactures and tests the purity of all-natural ingredients in dietary supplements, drugs, foods, beverages and cosmetics. The company sells its own bottles of antioxidants in vitamin and raw powder form. Established in 1999, ChromaDex earns revenue from its California-based sales office, Colorado-based laboratory and national distribution chain that includes Walgreens, CVS and Drugstore.com. Chromadex has already reported double-digit sales growth from pterostilbene, sold under the ingredient name pTeroPure™ and in the vitamin line BluScience™.

According to Dr. Oz and the Harvard-based scientist that joined him on TV, Dr. Eva Selhub, pterostilbene is in the same class as the well-publicized and well-regarded antioxidant contained in grapes and red wine: resveratrol. Pterostilbene works slightly differently than resveratrol, according to Dr. Selhub. Unlike resveratrol, it crosses the blood-brain barrier and improves memory and cognitive functions, she said. Clinical trials have also discovered that pterostilbene lowers blood pressure.

Dr. Oz described C3G (another antioxidant sold in extract form almost exclusively by ChromaDex) as a “fat buster.” Dr. Eva Selhub explained that C3G turns on the gene for fat metabolism, burning fat and encouraging weight loss in many people.

A study published in 2003 in the Journal of Nutrition found that feeding mice a diet supplemented with C3G prevented weight gain and diabetes when mice were on a high-fat diet. The control group of mice developed diabetes and became obese. Although naturally present in small quantities from black beans and black rice, anyone can buy C3G in supplement form using ChromaDex’s ingredient name ProC3G™.

As Chromadex’s products gain independent, unbiased coverage by national press outlets, it continues to increase sales at a healthy pace. Sales from third quarter of 2012 increased 99% over the same period in 2011. The company explained that the rapid increase was driven by sales at CVS and Walgreens of its pterostilbene-based vitamin line: BluScience™.

ChromaDex Benefiting from New Demand Trends for Pterostilbene and C3G

ChromaDex was launched in 1999 in response to the growing demand for natural products. Due to its large laboratory services division in Colorado, the company has built a reference-standard catalog of ingredients sold to numerous industries, including Ivy League universities, government agencies and major pharmaceutical corporations. ChromaDex’s core competency is high-purity manufacturing and testing of nature-identical phytochemicals, which are chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants. The reference standards created by ChromaDex are used in laboratory settings worldwide for guaranteeing the safety and quality of consumer products.

The company’s mission statement, according to CEO and founder Frank L. Jaksch Jr. is to acquire, develop and commercialize proprietary, early-stage ingredient technologies. ChromaDex’s laboratory maintains a catalog of over 4,000 phytochemicals.

Jaksch said ChromaDex is able to track the university and private research world in what he called “tremendous access,” in an online interview. Charting the orders received for ingredients helps to identify areas receiving significant research attention. Using that market intelligence, ChromaDex can be first to purchase patents and rights to utilize that information. Jaksch said in a separate interview that his company can cherry-pick intellectual property at a very early stage and inexpensively develop profitable vitamin and dietary supplement products. ChromaDex acquired intellectual property and manufacturing rights for pterostilbene and C3G using this method, and the tactic has returned millions in revenue.

The company competes in a marketplace with success stories like Martek, which spearheaded the market for omega-3 fatty acids, and Ganeden Labs, which spearheaded the market for probiotics. Both of these companies benefited from the sales trends that were ignited by similar types of television, radio and media awareness that is now occurring for pterostilbene and C3G.