Good News-Bad News on Resveratrol

Yesterday I reported on new research into the Health Benefits of Resveratrol. Today the not so good news …

Dr. Christoph Westphal, co-founder and past CEO of Sirtris Pharmeceuticals, is the scientist most associated with bringing Resveratrol into the public eye. His TV appearances on 60 Minutes and Oprah a couple of years ago created quite the media frenzy.

The media buzz spawned dozens of new companies hawking Resveratrol supplements “as recommended by” Oprah or Dr. Westphal himself. However, Dr. Westphal’s work has never been about Resveratrol supplements.

The Sirtris research quest was to create sirtuin-stimulating drugs, not OTC supplements. It was hoped that such drugs could extend human healthspans and prevent some of the diseases associated with aging like dementia, heart disease and diabetes.

GlaxoSmithKline bought Sirtris for $720 million in 2008.

It was expected that the funding such a well-capitalized company could bring to the research effort would yield rapid results on the anti-aging front. However, the road has been a bumpy one. Other research teams were unable to reproduce the positive Sirtris findings for Resveratrol.

Last month Sirtris announced that it has halted the last of its Resveratrol clinical trials.

Dr. Vlasuk, Sirtris’s current CEO, said Resveratrol has several features that make it unsuitable as a drug. These include the fact that it is hard to maintain a consistent level of resveratrol in the bloodstream and that it seems to have different effects at different doses.

In addition, from a commercial point of view, Resveratrol is a natural substance and not patentable.

Sirtris has completed three clinical trials with Resveratrol-mimicking drugs which work fairly specifically on SIRT1 to rejuvenate cell behavior, unlike Resveratrol, which also affects many other processes in the cell.

“We have much more confidence that we are targeting SIRT1 and that it’s an important target. Resveratrol is not that important anymore,” Dr. Vlasuk said.

Perhaps, this is not such bad news for anti-aging after all.

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