The NMN market in the United States is “Fried” again. NMN or nicotinamide mononucleotide is a form of vitamin B3 or niacin.
On February 16, the global e-commerce giant Amazon sent the following letter to all sellers of dietary supplements containing NMN, stating that it will remove all NMN dietary supplement products from the shelves on March 13, 2023. There is not much time left for NMN merchants.
According to Amazon, sellers can continue to sell NMN-containing products on Amazon until March 13, 2023. After March 13, suppliers must submit OTC sales certificates for FDA-approved NMN supplement products before they can continue selling.
Why Did Amazon Remove NMN Supplements?
According to foreign media speculation, there are three main reasons why Amazon made this decision:
No.1: Probably a business decision within Amazon
Amazon’s decision to stop selling NMN products is due to the adjustment of its internal business decision-making, and the specific content has not been disclosed. As a major e-commerce platform in North America and even the world, the quality of products on Amazon’s platform is uneven, and dietary supplement products are no exception. Many categories of products have repeatedly been exposed to quality problems. Therefore, at this stage, Amazon’s top priority is to provide consumers with high-quality products and services.
In 2021, ChromaDex conducted an efficacy test on 22 NMN brands (as of mid-2021) with the highest sales share on the Amazon platform and found that the hot-selling NMN products had quality problems, and 14 of them contained less than 1% of NMN, the specific results are as follows:
- 14% NMN content equal to or higher than label claims.
- The 22% NMN content is slightly lower than the label claim, or 88-99% of the label claim.
- 64% of the NMN content was below the method reporting limit or detection limit (indicating that the claimed NMN content was less than 1%)
This time, Amazon’s decision to stop selling NMN may be related to its product quality standards and profitability.
No.2: Amazon continues to be involved in legal proceedings
In 2019, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that Amazon should be liable for harmful products sold by third-party sellers. Based on this incident, Amazon tried to curb counterfeit products through the Seller Transparency Program.
In February 2023, the state of California filed a new class-action lawsuit against Amazon, alleging that the platform did not provide a disclaimer about products sold without approved drugs. However, it needs to be added that the 43-page Amazon lawsuit does not mention NMN or nicotinamide mononucleotide, but it still affects it now.
No.3: Following FDA recommendations or other reasons
In November 2022, the U.S. FDA announced that NMN is no longer considered a dietary supplement and is regarded as a drug or drug ingredient that requires FDA approval. This behavior directly affects the development of the NMN industry chain to a certain extent.
On December 1, 2022, the American Natural Products Association NPA asked the FDA to start a typical dietary supplement public comment period on NMN. Stakeholders can submit relevant safety data to the agency, but the FDA rejected the request and did not explain.
NMN Isn’t The Only Amazon Product Being Pulled
As of today, there are more than 200 NMN-related products still on sale on the Amazon platform in the United States. According to the new requirements, they will all be removed from the shelves after March 13. NMN is not the first time Amazon has taken action to remove a popular dietary supplement from its platform.
In 2020, the U.S. FDA announced that since N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) was approved as a drug as early as 1963, it was excluded from the definition of dietary supplements. Then, Amazon announced in 2021 that all dietary supplements containing NMN ingredient would be discontinued.
However, based on outcry, including citizen petitions and lawsuits, in 2022, the FDA finally decided to exercise enforcement discretion over NAC, providing dietary supplement marketers with a legal way to sell NAC in the United States. At this point, products containing NAC are back on the Amazon platform.
This time, whether NMN will eventually be “recalled” by Amazon, like NAC, depends critically on whether the US FDA’s attitude towards NMN will “reverse” and whether it will exercise discretion in law enforcement on NMN in the future is still uncertain.
NPA Expresses ‘Disappointment’ With Amazon’s Decision
After learning that NMN is about to be delisted by Amazon, the American dietary supplement industry trade organization NPA issued a statement, saying that it was disappointed with Amazon’s decision on NMN, and said in an email that Amazon should immediately resume NMN on its platform promotion.
At the same time, the NPA called on other e-commerce retailers, such as Whole Foods, to continue selling products containing NMN instead of following Amazon.
Dr. Daniel Fabricant, President and CEO of NPA, stated that the U.S. FDA’s backlash against NMN is causing market confusion and related economic losses. The status of approved NMN as a raw material for NDI was overturned.
Next, NPA will use all available resources to ensure that FDA is accountable to consumers and the NMN industry, just as it did with NAC.
Although NMN has encountered various “ups and downs” in the U.S. market, it has ushered in a “warm spring” in China, the world’s major consumer market.
The China Market Of NMN Ushered In A “Warm Spring”
On January 28, 2023, the National Health and Medical Commission announced that it had accepted the application for NMN (β-nicotinamide mononucleotide) as a new food additive. NMN became a market hotspot again, and related concept stocks rose sharply.
Liu Nan, a researcher at the Interdisciplinary Research Center of Biology and Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said in an interview with the media: “If NMN can be marketed in China as a food additive, I think it is a very critical step for its future large-scale use. From the mechanism of action Looking at it, I think NMN will make a very positive contribution to the aging problem. If NMN is successfully approved as a food additive, I believe that NMN will be widely used in China in the future.”
According to a research report by Minsheng Securities, NMN has a certain market in China. In 2020, the domestic NMN component healthcare product market will reach 5.106 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 34.87%. It is expected to climb at a growth rate of nearly 70.25% after 2023. to 27.013 billion yuan. According to data from the Xinsijie Industry Research Center, my country’s NMN market will reach 9.67 billion yuan in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 28.6%.
From the global market perspective, China is one of the most important consumer markets for NMN. In 2019, China’s NMN consumption accounted for about 67.83% of global consumption. Therefore, even if NMN suffers setbacks in the US as a dietary supplement, companies can still enter the Chinese market through cross-border e-commerce through Japan.
In addition, NMN can be used not only as a raw material for dietary supplements but also in cosmetics, pet food, etc. At present, NMN has been registered as a new cosmetic raw material in China, and it can be used in facial masks, lotions, and other categories. Of course, it still needs to be solved. The stability, solubility, and bioavailability of NMN and other issues.
Finally, Amazon’s removal of NMN products actually has certain negative effects. Because the progress of global regulations is still “looking” at the United States, some countries may follow the United States to identify the identity of NMN as a drug direction.
But in any case, the country has accepted the application of NMN as a new food additive. For global NMN companies, strengthening the efficacy of NMN is the most urgent thing at present. Through solid and powerful scientific research endorsement to prove the effect of NMN, I believe that NMN as a new food additive will soon usher in the spring of domestic regulations.
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