Longevity Life Sciences was co-founded in 2023 by Sally Panton and Lucy Canny, CEO and chief operating officer, respectively.

The Australia-based company won the Start-up of the Year at this year’s NutraIngredients-Asia Awards, beating finalists HiveEnergy Sports Gel and Taama. All 17 winners were unveiled at an award ceremony in Bangkok on September 2.

Last year, Longevity Life Sciences became the first in Australia to receive approval from the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) for a nicotinamide mononucleotide ingredient that it sources from Shanghai-based SyzncoZymes.

With the approval, the ingredient, commercially available as CellVive NMN, can be used in dietary supplements sold in Australia and permitted to make claims such as “reduce free radicals formed in the body” and “maintain/support energy production.”

Since entering the market last December, about 40 Australian brands have partnered with the firm and are using CellVive NMN in their products. Melrose, Swisse and Bioglan are some of its brand partners.

“NMN has been wildly successful in the Australian market, even more than what we expected, and we’re so proud to have now converted $16 million in revenue since last December when we received the TGA approval,” Canny told NutraIngredients after the win. Over 2.4 million products containing CellVive NMN have been sold in Australia so far.

More ingredients to join CellVive

Now, the company wants to deepen its expertise in providing more science-backed cellular health ingredients approved by regulators such as the TGA for use in dietary supplements in Australia and beyond.

To do so, it has partnered with Mitsubishi Gas Chemical (MGC), one of Japan’s most established manufacturers of pharmaceutical-grade molecular compounds, to bring a pipeline of cellular health compounds to the Australian market through its proprietary CellVive ingredient platform in a multi-year partnership.

The first ingredient that it plans to introduce to Australia from MGC is pyrroloquinoline quinone (PQQ), commercially available as BioPQQ. It serves to support cellular energy, brain health and the growth of new mitochondria.

“The way we work is that we would first identify ingredients that we see demand for and then we seek out who we think are the most credible manufacturers globally for these ingredients,” said Canny.

Like CellVive NMN, BioPQQ will also go through TGA’s permissible-ingredient pathway, a process led by Dr. Teresa Nicoletti, who is part of Longevity Life Sciences’ team of scientific, medical and strategic advisors. Dr. Nicoletti is also a confirmed speaker at our upcoming Nutra Healthspan Summit taking place in London on November 10 to 11.

If successful, BioPQQ would become the first PQQ ingredient available for use in Listed Medicines in Australia. It is expected to generate multi-million-dollar sales in its first year on the Australian market.

Aside from BioPQQ, plans are underway to introduce four other MGC cellular health ingredients through the TGA-permissible ingredient pathway.

Canny said the aim was to create CellVive into a platform that consumers could easily recognize for its high-quality cellular health ingredients.

“CellVive has become such an important brand for us because we hope in five years, a consumer will recognize CellVive, and that it represents high-quality cellular health ingredients,” she said. “We hope that the CellVive mark will represent quality, trust, credibility and being backed by research, so that when consumers see a CellVive symbol, they know they can trust that product.”

The company hopes to receive TGA approval for BioPQQ around April next year.

BioPQQ has completed relevant regulatory processes elsewhere in the United States, Europe and Japan.

University of Sydney partnership

To drive clinical evidence of ingredients on the CellVive platform, Longevity Life Sciences has also signed a multi-year partnership with the University of Sydney.

The first study to be conducted is a double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial on healthy participants, designed to understand the impact of NMN on health.

“We believe this will be the largest NMN study that has ever been conducted in terms of the number of participants. It is a very sophisticated study which we are really excited about and it will be underway later this year and next year,” said Canny.

The plan forward is to conduct clinical trials on all other ingredients available on the CellVive platform.

Overseas plans

Apart from Australia, Longevity Life Sciences is also planning to expand into other markets, including Southeast Asian markets such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam, where there is strong demand for its CellVive NMN ingredient.

In Thailand, for instance, the company is pursuing the Thai FDA pathway for CellVive NMN and hopes to receive approval within the next year.

“We’ve seen such an incredible demand from overseas markets, which I believe is because of the TGA credibility that it brings and the reputation of the quality of Australian supplements,” said Canny. “We’ve received lots of interest from the UAE in particular, as well as Malaysia and Vietnam.”

In the same vein, the company believes that a successful TGA determination for BioPQQ would open both the Australian and Asia-Pacific markets for the ingredient. Specifically, it would allow PQQ to be supplied for use in Listed Medicines in Australia, while the credibility of Australia’s highly regarded therapeutic-goods framework provides a strong foundation for export into APAC, including Southeast Asia.

There is also the potential for dietary supplements containing CellVive NMN to enter China via cross-border e-commerce (CBEC).

In 2024, NMN supplements sold into China via CBEC were placed under scrutiny.

This year, NMN, alongside 19 other ingredients such as co-enzyme Q10, PQQ and 5-HTP, were placed on the List of Key Regulated Ingredients by China Customs.

Supplements containing these ingredients, regardless of whether they enter China via general trade or CBEC, would have to provide a certificate of origin and technical specifications, as well as a certificate of free sale and official evidence of food use in the country of origin.

With TGA’s approval, Canny believes that there is now a pathway for the company to access the Chinese market via CBEC.

“This is something that we’re navigating at the moment and it would open a pathway for our brand partners to access the Chinese market. While the Chinese market is huge, this is also an incredible opportunity unique to CellVive NMN’s partners,” said Canny.

How it started

Before starting Longevity Life Sciences, co-founder and CEO Panton co-founded another company, Pantonic Health, which specializes in preventative health diagnostics used in pharmacy and primary healthcare sectors.

During COVID-19, the company entered into a joint venture with DBG Health to bring COVID-19 rapid antigen test kits to Australia.

Both Panton and Canny’s experience at Pantonic Health has equipped them with a deeper understanding of Australia’s regulatory framework, which was what Longevity Life Sciences was built upon.

“Our work has always been around preventative health and how we can support preventative health using the TGA framework to bring in new solutions and commercialize them in Australia,” said Canny.

Through Longevity Life Sciences, the duo hopes to fill the market gap for cellular health ingredients that are not yet approved in Australia.

“The trend for longevity and cellular health ingredients is huge globally…However, some ingredients had never been brought through the sophisticated regulatory frameworks in Australia, and consumers were accessing them through grey channels. There was no confidence or credibility in the ingredients of these products. That’s when we saw a real opportunity to build a cellular health platform and bring in popular ingredients from around the world into the Australian market,” she added.