60 capsules sell for 22,000 yuan, in fact, it’s not even a health care product
Reveal the true face of the sky-high price "longevity medicine"
During the year-end "Double 11" and "Double 12" e-commerce promotions, the "longevity medicine" known as the anti-aging age was hyped up again. It not only entered the sales of pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms such as Dingdang Kuaiyao, but also launched large-scale sales on platforms such as Toutiao advertising.
The tempting slogans such as "Developed by Professor Harvard", "Li Ka-shing Eat Everyday", "Break Through the Limits of Life" have convinced many people.
However, the reporter's investigation learned that the efficacy of the so-called "longevity medicine" is completely unsupported by clinical data and can only be regarded as a dietary supplement at present.
"The effect is equivalent to eating more fruits and vegetables. Don't trust elderly friends." Several professionals reminded.
▶Phenomena 60 tablets of "longevity medicine" can sell for 22,000 yuan
The concept of the health care product industry is changed every year, and the hot spots are fried at any time.
The newcomer has become the "longevity medicine" of Internet celebrities. It uses β-nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN) as the main ingredient and claims to be a "longevity gene medicine" that can delay and resist aging.
On JD.com, the specification is 150 mg*60 capsules, and a bottle of β-nicotinamide mononucleotide labeled with Japanese imported emerging and branded β-nicotinamide mononucleotides can be sold for 22588 yuan, which is equivalent to nearly 400 yuan for one capsule; On cats, similar products under the American PipingRock brand also sold for 14,994 yuan.
The reporter noticed that it is currently difficult to find "longevity medicine" in physical supermarkets, and online e-commerce platforms have become their main sales channels.
In addition, such products have also landed on pharmaceutical e-commerce platforms such as Dingdong Kuaiyao, and their advertisements have also entered platforms such as Toutiao.
What is staggering is that under various marketing offensives, "longevity drugs" are very popular, and the monthly sales of related single products can easily reach millions of yuan.
Taking the Tmall platform as an example, it shows that a NMN product sold at the flagship store of Nexus Food at a price of 2980 yuan for the "Double 12" has a monthly transaction of 1,751, with monthly sales exceeding 5.2 million yuan; Ai Mu with an event price of 4009 yuan There are 531 monthly transactions of Yin brand NMN products, which is equivalent to monthly sales of more than 2 million yuan; the monthly transaction volume of Xinxinghe brand NMN products priced at 22,588 yuan also has 81, and its monthly sales have exceeded 1.8 million yuan.
▶The investigation of high-priced drugs and low-cost "killing people" did not discuss
It costs nearly 400 yuan for one tablet. Is it really expensive for such an expensive β-nicotinamide mononucleotide product?
The reporter found on wholesale platforms such as the 1688 Purchasing Wholesale Network that they searched for β-nicotinamide mononucleotide, and many of them were 95 yuan 100 grams per bag, or 560 yuan 500 grams per bag.
Compared with the sky-high price of thousands of yuan per bottle on e-commerce platforms, these are really floor prices.
A sales manager of a biomedical technology company told reporters that the company's current wholesale price of β-nicotinamide mononucleotide is 800 yuan per kilogram.
The "longevity medicine", which is low-cost, high-profit, and sells millions of yuan every month, has obviously become the "Tang Monk Meat" in the eyes of merchants.
▶There are many doubts about the true identity of "longevity medicine"
Is it medicine or health care product?
The true identity of the "longevity medicine" is still in doubt.
Ms. Wen, a researcher at a national-level pharmaceutical research institute, introduced to reporters that for drugs, there must be exact clinical trial data to prove that it has some actual clinical effects.
However, from the current stage, there is no relevant human clinical experiment data recognized by various circles at home and abroad.
The reporter confirmed from a staff member of the drug regulatory department that both domestic and imported drugs can be found on the website of the State Drug Administration.
However, the reporter searched and found that he could not find any related drugs related to β-nicotinamide mononucleotide, NMN or longevity drugs.
Obviously, "longevity medicine" is not a medicine recognized by our country.
Xu Huafeng, secretary-general of the China Health Care Association, told reporters that NMN is not yet in the list of food raw materials or additives in China. Using it to produce health food is not completely compliant in the strictest sense.
He said that the current NMN products claiming to be medicines or health products in China are not completely compliant.
Even in the United States and Japan, it is only classified as a dietary supplement abroad.
It is worth noting that the term dietary supplements is also an exotic product.
The US Food and Drug Administration announced the "Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act", which stipulates that dietary supplements may contain one or more dietary ingredients, which are used to increase total daily intake to supplement the diet Food ingredients.
In other words, it is closer to food.
my country's regulations in this regard are not yet clear enough.
"Some companies want to use NMN in dietary supplements or health foods, they will export NMN raw materials, manufactured abroad into finished products, and then return to the domestic market through cross-border e-commerce channels." Xu Huafeng said.
The reporter also noticed that Xiamen Jindawei Group Co., Ltd., a listed company recently, disclosed in its announcement in response to the Shenzhen Stock Exchange's letter of concern that its US subsidiary DRB has put on the shelves β-nicotinamide mononucleotide products, but DRB has not The actual utility of the product is clearly promised, and it has been clearly indicated that the product is not used to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
Li Jian, a professor at the School of Food and Health of Beijing Technology and Business University, told reporters that β-nicotinamide mononucleotide is only a substance with potential value to delay aging. Related drugs and health products have not been formally approved by my country’s regulatory authorities. Consumers Be careful when choosing.
▶Exposing "Nobel Prize Achievement" as a marketing tool
The Nobel Prize winners John Bertrand Gordon, Hans von Oyler, Ottovoberg...In all kinds of "longevity medicine" advertisements, these Nobel Prize winners have one thing in common. They all have won awards for related studies such as β-nicotinamide mononucleotide or NAD, and they have all become the "spokespersons" of "longevity drugs."
However, the reporter also discovered that Hans von Oyler won the Nobel Prize for Biology in 1929, and Otto Waberger won the Nobel Prize in 1931. Obviously, there is no direct connection with the current longevity medicine.
As for the relatively young John Bertrand Gordon, the reporter has not found records of his signing with certain specific longevity drug brands to endorse or authorize the use of related research results.
An NMN manufacturer called Gene Harbor claims that the product produced by the company has been selected as a research material by Harvard Labs. It has also cooperated with Harvard University professor Sinclair and adopted related technologies from Harvard University.
The reporter asked the company's customer service for verification, and the staff responded that the specific Harvard laboratory involved and the specific content of the contract with Harvard and Professor Sinclair belong to the company's privacy and cannot be provided.
On the Harvard University official website, although there is a detailed introduction by Professor Sinclair, the company mentioned in the information that he participated in the investment does not have the Hong Kong company Gene Harbor.
Geneport's official website also claimed that its NMN product sales ranked first in the recent "Double 12" sales of JD's nutritional and health products.
However, Jingdong responded that this ranking is only the overall sales ranking of health care products stores, which includes various related products.
JD has never made a separate statistics on the sales of NMN products. The so-called claim that it will be No. 1 in the NMN industry again is suspected of hitting the "Double 12" hot spot.
▶Some "longevity medicines" have been removed from e-commerce
"Regardless of whether foreign countries have approved NMN-related products, they must abide by the laws of our country when selling and advertising in my country." Sun Xuan, director of the Legal Business Management Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law, told reporters, "NMN-related products are sold domestically. It is undoubtedly a non-compliant practice to use the term "longevity gene medicine" and other terms that have the meaning of drugs, or to use this to induce inductive publicity."
The reporter then called the relevant person in charge of Tmall and JD. The two e-commerce platforms attached great importance to this issue and immediately carried out rectification.
Relevant persons in charge of Tmall also told reporters that after receiving relevant feedback, the platform conducted investigations as soon as possible and found that some businesses were suspected of violating regulations.
Currently, the platform has punished them in accordance with relevant rules.
For such violations, the platform will find one case to deal with one case in the future will not be merciless.
At the same time, Tmall also encourages consumers to actively report to the platform when they discover such illegal products.
The relevant person in charge of Jingdong told reporters that the platform conducted a comprehensive investigation at the first time and found that some businesses were suspected of violating regulations.
At present, JD.com has issued serious warnings to merchants in accordance with relevant rules and blocked relevant search terms that are suspected of exaggerating publicity.
In the future, the platform will continue to increase its supervision in response to such situations, and resolutely prevent false or exaggerated publicity.
Once discovered, all will be severely punished in accordance with the relevant rules of the platform.
At present, searching for the keyword "longevity medicine" on Tmall and JD.com has been unable to search for any NMN-related products.
In the NMN-related products searched through specific brand names, the descriptions related to the word "medicine" are basically removed.
It is worth noting that when the reporter had a conversation with the customer service of a "longevity medicine" distributor "Juoupin Overseas Flagship Store", as to whether the longevity medicine has been approved by relevant Chinese government departments, he said that it has only undergone customs clearance for the time being.
Subsequently, the reporter also learned from a number of relevant departments that at present, China has not launched a special inspection of "longevity medicine" related products.
Not only that, after foreign dietary supplements entered the domestic market, they were temporarily not included in the regulatory scope of my country's health products.
Obviously, in the face of the ever-increasing popularity of "longevity medicine" products, relevant supervision efforts still need to be improved.
Our reporter Zhao Peng