In a bid to boost awareness and education around healthy aging, while also promoting a dietary supplement tailored to that purpose, Bayer has unveiled a suite of resources tied to the recently launched supplement.
The Age Factor Cell Defense softgels joined Bayer’s One A Day line of vitamins and supplements earlier this summer, targeting the natural aging process of a body’s cells, which may not always align with a person’s chronological age, depending on factors like diet, exercise and stress, per Bayer.
The product claims to “defend against cellular aging” thanks to the inclusion of olive polyphenols, an antioxidant that Bayer says can help protect cells from oxidative stress, as well as Vitamin B3 to support natural levels of NAD+, a molecule linked to cellular energy production, and Vitamins C and D, niacin, omega-3 fatty acids, resveratrol and astaxanthin to “help support cell resilience.” As with all dietary supplements, those assertions should be taken with a grain of salt, as their claims of safety and efficacy aren’t subject to FDA sign-off.
A few months after their launch, the Age Factor product line has now expanded beyond the pills. In a Wednesday announcement, Bayer outlined a full “ecosystem” of offerings all geared toward supporting consumers’ pursuit of healthy aging.
The supplement is now supplemented by both a companion wellness app and a lab test. The free mobile app assigns users a “Lifestyle Score” based on their daily habits and provides tips and goal-tracking tools to help them boost that score with healthier habits around eating, exercise, sleep and more. Meanwhile, users can also purchase via the One A Day online store a saliva-based test from Chronomics that measures “biological age” and retails for $250.
Altogether, the ecosystem is meant to improve awareness, education and engagement around users’ own health while also providing them with tools to assess their health and take action, per Bayer.
“The healthy aging space can be a confusing one for consumers with countless products making big promises,” Abbie Lennox, head of regulatory, medical, safety, quality and compliance for Bayer’s consumer health segment, said in the announcement. “That’s why we took a science-led approach that focuses on the holistic factors that impact cellular age by equipping consumers with a product containing a key ingredient that helps defend against oxidative stress along with personalized recommendations and insights to best chart their own course.”
The extended Age Factor-verse marks the first such ecosystem that Bayer has built around one of its consumer products. It’s the brainchild of the precision health unit within the pharma’s consumer health division; Bayer launched the unit in May 2023 with a goal of creating “digital and digital-supported” solutions that could help people take a more active role in their personal health.
“Precision health is making self-care even more consumer-centric,” Julio Triana, president of the consumer health division, said this week. “Our aging journeys are unique to us all and new digital tools are enabling offerings to be more tailor-made. With this multi-[faceted] approach, we are educating and enabling consumers to make informed decisions about their self-care in new and exciting ways.”