A short clip from a YouTube interview (host Josh Trent) with Shawn Wells and Daniel Solomons discussing paraxanthine — a primary metabolite of caffeine. They cover why paraxanthine was overlooked (assumption people already get it from caffeine; variability in caffeine metabolism), historical research (known since the 1970s with some early-2000s data), commercial challenges (high initial production cost ~200x caffeine reduced to ~10–15x now), company development timeline (team worked ~5 years then partnered; additional 3–4 years of development; ongoing flavor work and V2 product launch), and scale (23 patents filed and 13 studies in progress).
Chapters
What's up with paraxanthine in the scientific community? Why did it take this long for it to pop through?
I, I have some answers on. I get this question a lot and like, some of it is like, it's crazy. 2. I like to say that some of the greatest inventions are things that were sitting there right in front of everyone's eyes, but they just didn't see that way. So many of us say, I guess that's the way it is. Caffeine is so omnipresent and so cheap. I think parazine is very expensive to make. Daniel can tell you that.
I think also to what, what Sean was saying earlier as well. Right. Everyone, you know, 90 something percent of people consume caffeine, paraxanthine, or when caffeine is metabolized, 80% of it turns into paraxanthine. So you have this, you know, preconceived notion that, well, if I'm consuming caffeine, I'm getting paraxanthine anyway. And so even if you were someone who did the work to find out what paraxanthine was, which is, you know, very few people. Yeah. And you can like just go on like Twitter or Reddit and maybe like half a dozen people had spoken about paraxanthine over the past, whoever knows how long. So you, you had this assumption that you were getting it anyway. But if you're that slow metabolizer, it's drip feeding into your system. But, you know, we didn't. We only more recently started to learn about the different way we metabolize caffeine. Right. We all thought we consume caffeine and we metabolize it the same way. Right. Five years ago, I didn't think that you'd drink an espresso at night and can't get to bed when I drink it and I'm passed out.
Yeah. Yeah.
And so we just didn't ask the question.
And my partners, we really pioneered the cost kind of breakthrough on this. Like right now it's about 10 to 15 times the cost of caffeine. When we initially started working on this, it was about 200 times the cost of caffeine.
You've gotten it cheaper than a latte at Starbucks. Sure.
I mean, this is.
Yeah.
The update drink is. Yeah, that's perfect. Yeah.
So going back to the Russian in the lab, like, what happened there? Was it the 70s, 80s? Like, when did it actually even come on scene? And why now? Because it seems like it's only been a year or two. And really you guys are leading the Ship?
Yeah, no, there isn't even existing. Its existence was certainly well known. Data I've seen in the 70s. We started getting some really preliminary kind of data early 2000s on it. But like, it just wasn't viewed as something that would have benefit, physiologic benefit, for whatever reason. Like, as Daniel pointed out, like, I think we just assumed you got some of it. Like, caffeine works. Like, why do you need it?
I mean, dude, I'm a conspirator. I always look for, okay, what financial interests wouldn't want this to replace it? Like, is there a Caffeine Board of America or, you know, look what happened with the US Sugar group.
Yeah, yeah.
Where they were like, yeah, fat will make you fat. And then they were like, oh, sorry, we lied. Is that caffeine and Parisanthine? Have you guys seen any tinfoil stuff there?
Like the Caffeine Board?
We haven't, not that I'm aware of. We haven't run into or like, anything. Maybe it's coffee.
Like some governing. Whoever taxes the coffee is like, well, we can't have Parisanthine come out because then we'll lose, you know, billions of dollars on taxing coffee.
Yeah, I think so. Not running into that issue probably implies one of two things. One, either that board doesn't exist, or two, we're not big enough yet.
Hopefully.
Hopefully it's big enough.
They're. You're going to get a letter in the mail.
Hopefully it's the latter. But also, like, you know what, what Sean didn't tell you is, you know, he and his team, when we first touched base with them, you know, must be three or four years ago now, they had been working on this for five years. Right. And, you know, he had known about it pre, you know, prior to that, but him and the actual team he put together had been working on this for five years, spent millions of dollars to manufacture this. Then we find them, we partner up with them. And it took us a further. I mean, it's been three years since we started working on Update or three to four years. And I would argue, you know, we're now just coming out with V2. And that's, you know, the biggest part of it is really the flavor improvement. And I would argue that, you know, we're still, you know, working on, you know, paraxanthine and how, how we can make it palatable to, you know, people to consume. So, you know, if you add all of that up, we're talking about nine years really doing million dollars.
And we're 23 patents filed and 13 studies in right now.
So yeah, well, now is the time. I mean, there's never been more of a threat existentially, energetically. The collective unconscious right now is kind of freaking out. Don't go anywhere. Click the link on the screen. If you love that clip that you just watched, you're going to absolutely love this full length video. You just have to tap the little icon on the screen while you're at it. Subscribe.
