As interest in metabolic health, longevity science, and precision medicine continues to grow, the ability to accurately measure biological markers linked to cellular health is becoming increasingly important. At the forefront of this emerging field is NADMED, a company pioneering clinically validated NAD and redox biomarker testing. In this exclusive conversation with BioPharma APAC, newly appointed CEO James Lee shares insights from his pharmaceutical leadership experience, explains how NAD measurement could evolve from a research tool into a routine clinical diagnostic, and outlines NADMED's strategy to expand scientific evidence, regulatory reach, and commercial adoption worldwide.

Having led global commercial and strategic initiatives in large pharmaceutical organisations including Novo Nordisk, what key lessons are you bringing into NADMED as the company enters its next phase of international growth and clinical adoption?

A scientifically excellent platform does not sell itself. Adoption is built, and it takes investment and time. The lesson from Novo Nordisk and from my years across small and mid-size pharma is that what drives adoption is a genuinely differentiated product, backed by strong science and matched by strong medical and commercial execution. It is the whole infrastructure around a new technology: the clinical evidence that gives patients and clinicians a reason to change, and the commercial model that turns a good idea into recurring revenue.

I think of HbA1c. It went from a research measurement to the backbone of diabetes management because three things came together: hard outcome data linking it to risk, standardisation so a result meant the same thing everywhere, and clinical guidelines that gave clinicians a reason to act on it. That is the path a measurement travels to become standard of care. Our ambition is for NAD measurement to follow the same path, in metabolic disease and across the wider range of conditions where NAD biology plays a role.

NADMED has already proven that the demand for accurate NAD measurement at scale is real, and the science is world-class. We are now building the commercial platform to meet that demand globally, with discipline about where we continue to lead, without diluting the scientific rigour that built the company.

How do you see NAD measurement transitioning from a predominantly research-focused area into a routine clinical diagnostic and preventative healthcare tool?

It starts with precision about what blood NAD measurement actually tells us.

One common misconception is that blood NAD⁺ is a clock that falls with age. The evidence, including our own, shows that in healthy people, blood NAD⁺ stays stable with age. When it varies, the cause is increased demand from disease, inflammation, or metabolic stress. That reframing matters, because it makes NAD a meaningful readout of metabolic state.

Routine clinical use will be earned in three steps. First, reliable, standardised measurement to replace today’s fragmented methods. Second, broader reference ranges and clearer links between specific redox patterns and specific conditions. Third, and most valuable, evidence that measuring redox status changes a decision or an outcome. That last step is the hardest, and it is where the next several years will decide who defines the category. We are proud to be at the forefront of the scientific collaborations generating the data to get there.

NADMED’s role is to be the reliable measurement standard on which that evidence is built. A test that runs on standard lab equipment, needs only a small sample, and delivers a full redox picture rather than a single number is what allows the clinical evidence to accumulate. That is the bridge from research tool to routine practice.

NADMED currently offers what is described as the only CE-marked test capable of directly measuring vitamin B3 derived NAD molecules from fresh blood. What clinical and healthcare gaps does this technology aim to address more effectively compared to existing metabolic or biomarker assessment approaches?

NADMED is CE-marked for measuring NAD⁺ and NADH from whole blood. Alongside it, the NADMED method measures the full redox profile, all four NAD forms together with both forms of glutathione, from a single sample on standard laboratory equipment. That fuller panel is the scientific core of the platform and is used today in research and through our central laboratory service.

This matters because NAD measurement has been trapped between mass spectrometry, which is accurate but costly and unscalable, and other kits that are not accurate enough to guide decisions. A regulated, accurate, scalable assay is what makes that possible, and it gives us both a clinical foothold and a platform to grow from.

Preventative and personalised healthcare ecosystems are increasingly seeking measurable biological indicators for ageing, metabolic resilience, and lifestyle intervention outcomes. How do you envision NAD biomarkers contributing to the future of precision wellness and longevity-focused healthcare models?

I believe that there is a synergy between the NADMED platform and where the entire consumer health space is heading.

NAD and glutathione are central to how cells produce energy, manage stress, and repair themselves, which is why they are such a powerful window into metabolic health and resilience. An accurate test of the full redox picture, run on standard laboratory equipment, gives individuals and clinicians something the field has lacked: an objective baseline, a way to see whether an intervention is genuinely working, and a way to track metabolic health over time. Because it runs on standard equipment, that picture is accessible to clinicians and patients at scale.

That makes us a natural partner across the whole consumer ecosystem, from longevity clinics and personalised health programmes to the supplement industry itself. The most credible players in that space want to prove their products work and want their customers to use them well, and they cannot do that without reliable measurement. The science is also clear that more is not always better, which is precisely why an objective test is so valuable: it lets people and the companies serving them move from guesswork to evidence. Our role is to be the measurement layer beneath all of it, the standard that turns longevity from an aspiration into something you can quantify and act on. That is a contribution I believe can genuinely change how people approach lifelong health.

The recent collaboration involving the Schlegel Lab at Cleveland Clinic highlights the potential role of NAD-related science in transplantation and organ preservation. How do you see NAD diagnostics supporting future clinical decision-making in critical care and transplantation medicine?

This is one of the most exciting frontiers of the science.

The damage an organ sustains during preservation and reperfusion, is one of transplantation’s central unsolved problems, and oxidative stress and disturbed redox balance are core mechanisms. The field lacks good biomarkers to quantify that injury. A full NAD profile is well suited to that gap, because it measures the system under stress rather than a downstream proxy. The collaboration with the Schlegel Lab at Cleveland Clinic is exploring exactly this in organ preservation.

This is still research and not yet a validated clinical tool. If redox state can be measured accurately and reliably, it opens the door to better assessment of organ viability and injury, and in time to guiding intervention. The way to get there is through rigorous academic collaboration that lets the evidence lead, and it is work NADMED is proud to be part of.

Looking ahead over the next three to five years, what strategic priorities will define NADMED’s roadmap across diagnostics, clinical partnerships, regulatory expansion, and broader commercial adoption globally?

I started as CEO at the beginning of May 2026 and we are building our long-range strategic plan, so I will speak to direction and conviction rather than a fixed roadmap.

The first priority is to scale the commercial organisation to match the science, strengthening the team, the partnerships, and the operational and financial foundations so that we can serve growing global demand sustainably.

The second is to keep advancing and leading the science. We have ongoing scientific collaborations with major academic and research institutions around the world across multiple therapeutic areas, and the work now is to extend our reference ranges across broader populations and disease states, and to sharpen how redox patterns map to specific conditions. That is what turns a validated assay into a fully clinically actionable one.

The third is to expand our regulatory position beyond today's CE-marking, building deliberately toward the indications the evidence supports and across all major geographies.

Our vision is clear. NADMED has the only platform that is CE-marked and can accurately measure NAD and glutathione at scale on standard laboratory equipment. The strategy over the next three to five years is to turn this differentiated platform into the standard across research and clinical development, diagnostics and personalised health, by continuing to lead the science and to expand our commercial presence globally.