Fake Dietary Supplements Being Sold on Amazon

The three top-selling products distributed by Serumlab International, (NMN & Resveratrol under the brand “Kompracha”, Liposomal Glutathione under the brand “Star Honor” and NMN under the brand “NMN Plus”) are all top sellers in the NMN and Glutathione categories respectively. As seen on the product packaging (photos can be found HERE), all three are confirmed to be distributed by Serumlab S&C International LLC. The address as listed is as follows:

(US) Distributed by Serumlab S&C International LLC, 5305 River RD N STE B, KEIZER, OR 97303 USA

These three products are all top sellers on Amazon, with thousands of units being purchased and ingested by Amazon customers every month.

The network of some of the brands all sold by SerumLab on Amazon

These three products were each sent to two independent ISO-certified labs, and have been confirmed to have 0% of the active ingredients.

In addition to these top three best-selling products, there are hundreds more being sold by SerumLab. An additional 15 Serumlab products were sent for testing (from a number of their different brands), and have been found to be 100% fake.

* Lab report for this product is not included in this document but is available upon request

SerumLab products are growing at an alarming rate in Amazon USA, UK, and Germany. Here you can see the growth in their brands and products since May 2020 in Amazon USA:

Figure 2: Increasing number of products and brands sold by SerumLab since 2020

Conclusion

The strategy being employed by SerumLab International is clear, and effective: 

• Sell adulterated supplements under dozens of different brands.
• Out-price the competition (by using fake ingredients) to gain market share
• Flood their own listings with fake positive reviews, and relentlessly attack competitors with negative reviews, using buyer accounts they own

This strategy is enabling them to grow and proliferate with alarming success across many different markets.

Amazon must take action to remove this bad actor in order to ensure a safe environment for its customers, as well as a fair marketplace for its sellers.

Source: https://medium.com/@SupplementReport/tens-of-thousands-of-fake-dietary-supplements-being-sold-every-month-on-amazon-123746f50318

Chromadex NMN Supplement Test Report: 64% of NMN Supplements Fail Tests

ChromaDex NMN Report (Oct 2021): Supplement manufacturer ChromaDex alleges that testing has revealed that more than half of NMN anti aging supplements being sold on Amazon contained almost none of the bioactive molecule.

ChromaDex markets TruNiagen, which is based on its branded Niagen ingredient, which is a form of nicotinamide riboside (NR), the form of nicotinamide that actively crosses into the cell to participate in the NAD+ pathway. Boosting this pathway, and thus maintaining cellular function at a lively, youthful level, has become a prominent theme in recent anti aging research.

Credit: ChromaDex

* The same distributor (SerumLab S&C International LLC) was listed on the product packaging from 10 of the 22 product brands.

Some researchers have argued that a transporter exists for NMN too, which is something that ChromaDex disputes. It claims that NMN must first be converted into NR in the blood before it can be used by the cells.

In the several years since the NMN transporter discovery was asserted, the NAD+ anti aging field has become crowded with NMN based supplements all seeking a piece of the pie created by ChromaDex and its competitor and one time customer Elysium. (The two companies have been locked in various patent infringement and breach of contract suits for several years.)

Last fall, ChromaDex obtained 22 samples of NMN products being sold on Amazon. Of these, 14 claimed to contain 500 mg of NMN. A further two products claimed 300 mg on the label; five claimed 250 mg and one product claimed 125 mg.

Only one of the 500 mg products came close to meeting label claim. It had 456 mg of NMN. All of the other 13 products in the 500 mg group either came in at below reporting limit (BRL, defined as less than 1% of the stated amount) or, in the case of 3 products, no NMN was detected at all.

Almost all of the rest of the products performed better, having at least 88% of the label claim. A lone 250 mg product was identified as BRL.

In summary, ChromaDex said that 64% of the products tested contained less than 1% of the stated amount of the active ingredient, which should give consumers pause, the company said.

"While this is a limited snapshot of the vast NMN finished product landscape, it does provide a glimpse into the high variability of product quality that is available... According to this study, the majority of the products one might purchase online contain such a small amount of NMN that there would be no clinical benefits achieved from the dose. Another concern with these adulterated products is that the actual contents are not known and could pose a risk to the user," the company said in a statement.

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