Mirailab Bioscience Inc. was the first in Japan to recognize the potential of NMN (nicotinamide mononucleotide) as an anti-aging ingredient capable of revolutionizing the medical field. Through joint research with Professor Shinichiro Imai at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and other academic institutions, as well as constant research in our own specialized laboratories, Mirailab Bioscience Inc. has developed and now distributes high-quality NMN with a thorough focus on purity. In this article, Chairman Tsunemaru Tanaka, President Megumi Tanaka, and Research Director Dr. Nobuaki Shimizu will talk about their journey to launch the world the world’s only NMN product endorsed by Prof. Imai, and their prospects as leaders in quality.
- “For my child, I want to live long and stay healthy.” Focused on development after learning about NMN on a TV program
- The path to commercialization, despite NMN’s low name recognition. Bringing rare, high-purity NMN to consumers
- Encounter with Professor Imai of the University of Washington, an Authority on NMN. Committed to further quality improvement through collaborative development
- Staying ahead as a global NMN leading company and a quality leader
“For my child, I want to live long and stay healthy.”
Focused on development after learning about NMN on a TV program
──How did you learn about NMN?
Chairman Tanaka: “It was on January 3, 2015, during the New Year holidays with family, that my wife (President Tanaka) and I first learned about NMN from a TV program. The show explained how NMN had rejuvenated cells in experimental rats. We were deeply moved and excited, believing that this could be the dawn of a remarkable era. I had a child at a somewhat advanced age, so I strongly felt that staying healthy and living longer was a mission. That day, I decided to dedicate myself to developing NMN supplements.”
President Tanaka: “There are many supplements in the market, but I felt that if we had NMN, everyone could live youthfully and vibrantly. It seemed like this product had the potential to be ‘the culmination of all supplements.’ That is why I strongly wanted to bring it to the public.”
Dr. Shimizu: “By the time I joined the company in 2019, Mirailab Bioscience Inc. had already launched its NMN product. I was amazed to learn that Japan was the first to commercialize such a revolutionary ingredient. Since then, we have continued our anti-aging research.”
──Did you have any concerns about developing and commercializing supplements from scratch?
President Tanaka: “I think the chairman ‘was determined to develop it’ no matter what. We had a strong desire to get our hands on it and try it out ourselves, and the chairman is good at researching ingredients, so we immediately started looking into ‘what kind of companies would cooperate with’ the development.”
Chairman Tanaka: “The potential of NMN was so enormous that I decided to sell whatever we had to fund development anyway. At that time, 1 kg of NMN reagent was said to cost nearly 400 million yen, and it was expensive anyway. But I had a strong desire to supply what the world needed rather than for profit.”
President Tanaka: “I believed that ‘If people knew about NMN and its effects, they would definitely want it,’ so I was determined to make it happen. Of course, there were certainly many hurdles to overcome (laughs).”
The path to commercialization, despite NMN’s low name recognition.
Bringing rare, high-purity NMN to consumers
──How was the reaction of those around you to NMN at that time?
Chairman Tanaka: “Ten years ago, there were almost no hits when you searched for ‘NMN’ on search engines. Moreover, the raw materials were too expensive, and it was difficult to get our hands on them. On the other hand, I knew that NMN is produced when niacin and tryptophan are synthesized in the liver, so I thought I could take a step forward if I could find a manufacturer that could make a supplement containing these two ingredients. We contacted about 10 companies and received replies from half of them. But then one company asked me, “Are you perhaps trying to make a supplement aimed at improving sleep through the nervous system?” This company had been aware of the existence and efficacy of NMN since that time and seemed to have sensed that we were working toward the development and marketing of NMN supplements. They then introduced us to another company that could provide high-quality NMN raw materials at a more reasonable price.”
President Tanaka: “However, in order to get the raw material available at a reasonable price, we had to maintain regular orders. It was also a race against time to spread awareness of NMN among customers and convert that awareness into purchases as soon as possible. So, after the product was commercialized, I sometimes had to put my child in a stroller and go out on sales trips to find new distributors. But once we finally got the product into the stores we had developed, our product’s value and profitability drew attention. They liked it not only for the product itself, but also for the fact that the high unit price made it easy to expect a profit. We then combined this with e-commerce and steadily increased our sales channels.”
──How did you manufacture NMN as a supplement?
Chairman Tanaka: “In the final development process, NMN was an unstable ingredient that easily deteriorated. To compensate for this, we made various requests to the supplier, and when we had the sample adjusted and tested at the Food Analysis Center, the purity was certified at over 90%. ‘Now it was time to go to the market!’ However, at the time, NMN belonged to the category of “reagent products,” and it was unclear whether it could be marketed as a supplement. We inquired at various institutions, including the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the Consumer Affairs Agency, and public health centers, but they all seemed to have no idea what NMN was. The official name of NMN is “nicotinamide mononucleotide,” but children’s powdered milk also contains an ingredient called “(nucleotide).” So, we explained that we wanted to sell mononucleotide, a type of nucleotide, as a supplement, and somehow, we got everyone to understand. We obtained approval by clearly indicating the name of the ingredient on the product, and by applying to the public health department, we were granted a sales license and a business license.”
Chairman Tanaka: “At that time, we simultaneously launched a supplement containing 300 mg of NMN per bottle (5 mg/capsule) and resveratrol, which is expected to have antioxidant properties. A supplement called ‘raw enzymes 260 +NMN’ which containing 260 food enzymes, and a supplement containing niacin and tryptophan (NMN is produced through synthesis in the liver). Then, probably the viewers of the TV program that inspired us to develop the NMN supplement took notice of our NMN products, and within 3 weeks (21 days) of the launch, one of our products was ranked number one on a major e-commerce platform. (Survey period: April 1, 2015 – April 30, 2015) I think this was due in part to the fact that we had already created a buzz as the world’s first NMN supplement to be launched.“
Encounter with Professor Imai of the University of Washington, an Authority on NMN
Committed to further quality improvement through collaborative development
──Please tell us how you made the connection with Prof. Imai of Washington University.
Chairman Tanaka: “It was at that time that I happened to find the e-mail address of Professor Shinichiro Imai of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, USA, on the Internet. Prof. Imai is an authority in the field of NMN research and has been continuously exploring the possibilities of NMN from an academic perspective. Surprisingly, the professor had discovered and purchased our company’s NMN supplements during a trip back to Japan! It seems that he had purchased it as a sample for testing the actual NMN content in the laboratory. From then on, our interaction with Prof. Imai gradually increased in order to further understand the “effective dosage for human body”.“
Chairman Tanaka: “At that time, it was assumed that there would be no problem if humans intake about 100 mg of NMN per day. However, even if we were to proceed with the research, it seemed to be difficult because the raw material for NMN is very expensive, and an overwhelming amount of paperwork and the approval was required to donate raw material samples to Professor Imai’s laboratory from outside party if we want to request our own’s research. Therefore, we at Mirailab Bioscience donated about 1 kg of NMN raw material to Professor Imai’s laboratory, and the research was carried out separately. Eventually one day I also had the opportunity to visit Professor Imai’s lab at the University of Washington, and the most satisfying moment of our development journey was when we decided to start clinical research on NMN together.“
Chairman Tanaka: “At that time, NMN Pure 3000+ (118,800 yen at the time) and NMN Pure 1500+ (64,800 yen at the time) were popular, so we realized that interest in anti-aging care was increasing in the world. That’s why we wanted to measure the effects of NMN Pure 3000+ in humans, not mice only. And we asked a famous university and medical school in Japan for cooperation. The effects were measured over a two-year period, fortunately we got very positive results. We also had Professor Imai from the University of Washington measure the protein expression in NMN at the same time.”
──What is the difference between Mirailab’s products and other NMN supplements on the market?
Chairman Tanaka: “Around that time, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare finally started a deliberation on whether NMN should be a ‘food’ or a ‘drug,’ and we were asked to submit public comments. Since we had been conducting human efficacy measurements at university research institutes, and based on the results, we were able to successfully commercialize the NMN products as ‘food’ level supplements. While we felt relieved, once NMN was recognized as a food product, various companies jumped into the market. Naturally, we received many inquiries from companies wanting to buy the raw materials, and we even distributed NMN to domestic companies for research purposes. Currently, many companies use NMN from China, India, and the United States, which are cheaper but has many impurities. Nevertheless, Mirailab Bioscience provides high-quality NMN that is consistently produced domestically.“
Chairman Tanaka: “In Japanese health functional food labeling, the argument that NMN can be produced simply by taking vitamin B3 and niacin into the body has been incorrectly passed off as a widely accepted theory. Unlike medicine, supplements are consumed daily, so purity is critical. High-purity NMN simply can’t be sold at JPY 3,000 to JPY 5,000.”
Staying ahead as a global NMN leading company and a quality leader
──Please tell us about the strength of having your own laboratory and your commitment to quality.
Chairman Tanaka: “NMN research has been in full swing since 2019, when researchers, including Dr. Shimizu, began to reside in our own laboratory, which is the only lab in the world specializes in NMN research. It is very exciting to be the first lab in the world to witness results such as “confirming the activity of the Sirtuin gene (also known as the longevity gene) in human cells” and “Increasing the number of mitochondria”, etc. I think our strength lies in the fact that we are studying NMN through human blood and cells, not rats.“
Chairman Tanaka: “You can use our analysis kits to check how much your mitochondria increase through the intake of NMN. Increasing the number of mitochondria also helps to combat aging. Until now, what changes occurred to the body after taking a supplement has often relied on personal feelings, but because of such realities of supplements, we thought that by scientifically proving the effects of NMN, we should be able to visualize the good quality of our NMN. In this way, customers can continue to take our Mirailab’s NMN with confidence. Recently, research institutions have also been purchasing our analysis kits.”
Dr. Shimizu: “Research results have actually shown that NMN increases the amount of mitochondria. Until now, there was no easy way to investigate this, but recently our analysis kits have been used by general companies conducting clinical research. For example, they seem to use it when measuring the aging rate of more than 100 people. Whether you can immediately feel the effects of continuing to take NMN varies from person to person. However considering the mechanism by which NMN works in the human body, it is very possible that you will be able to feel the effects 10 years after continuing to take it.“
Chairman Tanaka: “We were the world’s first to commercialize NMN supplements, and we are committed to providing highly pure, safe, and reliable products through joint clinical research with Professor Imai of the University of Washington and other universities, institutions, as well as through in-depth research in our own laboratory. In addition to the development of supplements, we have also launched beauty products that focus on anti-aging effects. In the future, we plan to release several products that can counteract age-related diseases such as cancer, stroke, and myocardial infarction. We are committed to being the leader in NMN quality, without engaging in empty talk but helping everyone be healthier and enjoy every day of their lives based on solid scientific evidence.“