The research will focus on precision nutrition for cardiovascular health, performance and healthy aging, with Humann planning to direct most of its investment toward new product categories.
Clinical trials will be part of the program, which will study women and men across different life stages, although the company is keeping details of its first projects under wraps.
‘We are building moats’
Humann has worked with academic researchers before, but the company’s CEO and co-founder Joel Kocher said that those collaborations tended to revolve around individual projects. The UC Davis agreement gives the company a standing research program focused on discovery and developing intellectual property.
“Most research relationships in this industry are one project at a time: You ask a question, you get an answer, everyone moves on,” he said.
“A standing partnership with Dr. Schmitz and the UC Davis Innovation Institute for Food and Health enables us to pursue discovery rather than simply confirmation and build a body of intellectual property work that belongs to Humann.”
What that research will look like initially is less clear. Humann has not disclosed the populations, biomarkers, ingredients or interventions it plans to study, but that lack of detail is intentional, according to Kocher.
“We are building moats...we are the market maker, but the speed at which you are copied in this industry is accelerating,” he said. He added that clinical trials would be a key part of the program but not its sole focus.
Most investment aimed at new categories
Humann expects the research to have implications for its existing products, new ingredients, and categories in which the company does not currently compete, “with the majority of the investment aimed at new categories,” Kocher shared.
Humann was founded around nitric oxide science, and much of its product portfolio has focused on blood flow and healthy blood pressure support. More recently, it has expanded into cholesterol and metabolic health, and the UC Davis research will take that expansion further.
“Validating what’s already on the shelf is table stakes; we’ve been doing that since day one of Humann,” Kocher said.
“You don’t build a partnership like this one for the products you already have...we are out to break new ground,” he added.
The company is also interested in discovering ingredients rather than licensing or adopting ingredients that already have an established evidence base.
“We are not shopping for what’s already been proven...the scope of the partnership will point at new discoveries and innovation,” Kocher said.
That could include new ingredients aimed at different health conditions as well as new delivery formats, he added.
Beyond nitric oxide
Humann traces its origins to University of Texas research associated with the late Ferid Murad, MD, PhD, who shared the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.
Kocher said the UC Davis partnership marks a deliberate move into a wider definition of cardiovascular nutrition.
“The company was founded on nitric oxide, and that work is primarily about vasodilation and healthy blood pressure support,” he said.
“More recently, we’ve moved into adjacent areas like cholesterol and metabolic health.”
He added that the new research would extend into cardiovascular nutrition and healthy aging but declined to share Humann’s scientific or product roadmap.
Harold Schmitz, PhD, will lead the research initiative. Schmitz is a former chief science officer at Mars and a senior scholar at the UC Davis Graduate School of Management.
In a press statement, Justin Siegel, faculty director of IIFH, said the collaboration would combine expertise in nutrition science and technology. “By combining complementary expertise, we can accelerate research that advances scientific knowledge and its translation into practical insights positively impacting consumer health,” he said.
What counts as enough evidence?
The partnership also gives Humann another way to make its case for greater scientific substantiation in the supplement industry.
The company reported eight published clinical studies on its products. Kocher said he wanted retailers to scrutinize the evidence behind supplements when deciding which products reach their shelves.
“The standard gets set at the shelf,” he said.
“Retailers are the gate, and I think it’s their responsibility to know whether a product clears a scientific and clinical bar before it goes on the shelf.”
He argued that greater understanding of clinical data among retailers and consumers would favor supplement companies that invest in research.
“The best thing that could happen to a company like ours is for consumers and retailers to understand what real clinical data is worth,” he said.
For Humann, however, the UC Davis work is not primarily about adding substantiation to products it already sells. Kocher repeatedly pointed to discovery as the priority, particularly as the company looks outside its established nitric oxide business.
“Our track record is the answer: We’ve expanded this category every time the science gave us a reason to, and that’s what this partnership is built to do,” he said.
