Highlights: 

  • NMN was initially acknowledged as a supplement by the FDA but due to the actions of Metro International Biotech, it has been banned from being sold as a supplement. 
  • Dr. Huberman says that the ban could be reversed if many letters are sent to the FDA demanding its unbanning.

As a guest on The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), Stanford professor Andrew Huberman, Ph.D., discussed everything NMN (transcripts posted on Raising NAD+) with podcast host Joe Rogan. During their conversation, Rogan queried the FDA’s ban on NMN, to which Huberman briefly explained key points of the story.

He explained how a company called Metro International Biotech (MIB) is testing an experimental drug — a slight variation on NMN — in a clinical trial. The problem is that the FDA does not allow compounds to be sold as a supplement if they are being tested as a drug. As such, some controversy has arisen around whether MIB’s testing began before or after NMN was first sold as a supplement. 

Harvard professor Dr. David Sinclair, former guest on the JRE, is co-founder and chair of the scientific advisory board for MIB. Sinclair also helped popularize NMN on none other than the JRE. For these and other reasons, many have suspected that MIB coerced the FDA into banning NMN. In turn, if NMN becomes a prescription drug, MIB would have the patent. It follows that MIB would have exclusive legal rights to selling NMN, perhaps leading to an extreme price hike.  

A similar scenario occurred a few years ago with a compound called NAC (N-acetyl cysteine). NAC was initially banned, but Huberman explains that the FDA decided to let NAC stay on the market because many people wrote letters to the FDA. The letters explained that since NAC was already sold as a supplement, it couldn’t suddenly be taken off the shelves. This might be analogous to someone having their medication suddenly taken away from them. Huberman says, 

“If people are interested in certain compounds remaining on the market, they should definitely write to the FDA. The FDA — they listen when things happen in large volume. And I’m certainly going to write letters. And I think that keeping NMN on the market as a supplement would be wonderful for many people that want to take it.”