Salt Lake City-based USANA, a cellular nutrition company, has a positive reputation in the nutritional industry due to its commitment to strong, reliable science. To further solidify that foundation, the company has created a new, centralized plan on the design and management of product-related, preclinical and clinical studies. These new processes will be put in place for the design and execution of all new studies to meet and exceed the highest standards in the industry.
“Our no.1 goal at USANA is to continue to develop high-quality, scientifically validated health products for the millions of people all over the world who value USANA products,” said USANA Chief Scientific Officer Robert Sinnott, Ph.D. “Reworking the research and development department to sharpen our focus on clinical studies is the perfect way to ensure that we reach and surpass our goals. This will also provide USANA’s Associates with a great sales tool to show that our products are backed up by sound science.”
The new clinical sciences team at USANA will be led by Rolando Maddela, MD, MPH, and Jessie Johnson, Ph.D. The team is charged with the design and overall strategy of USANA clinical studies. Mark Levy, Ph.D., will also continue his role of working with the research and development department on clinical studies. Lawry Han, Ph.D., is a new addition to the department and brings experience in designing and conducting human clinical studies. Both Dr. Levy and Dr. Han will report directly to Dr. Maddela.
Product-related, preclinical and clinical studies play a vital role in determining what structure function claims can be supported by reasonable science, which are then reviewed by USANA’s legal department to satisfy government regulations. As the bar for scientific validation continues to rise globally, USANA is committed to staying the leader in designing and building the world’s best nutritional wellness products.
Recent meta-analysis studies from USANA include published articles about the effects eating whole fruit versus drinking fruit juice have on immunoregulatory pathways and the covariate-dependent effect of the MTHFR single nucleotide polymorphism rs1801133 on blood homocysteine. USANA’s R&D team has also recently won a Best of State award for the top research and development department in the state of Utah.
