Aiming at the public's demand for "height increase", "AjiFu" has developed an oral "IGF-1 sensitizer" for height growth | Project Report

Text | Hu Xiangyun

Editor | Hai Ruojing

In the children's height - increasing market seemingly "monopolized" by growth hormones, is there still a chance for late - comers?

After more than a decade of market penetration, when it comes to the "external forces" that can help children grow taller, apart from calcium supplementation, exercise, and sleep, injecting growth hormones has gradually become the instinctive reaction of parents. However, growth hormones are ultimately drugs with clear limitations on the applicable population. In the era when the public is "chasing height", this is obviously "not enough".

In response to the "height - chasing" needs of non - short - stature children, several new players have gradually emerged in the consumer medical market in the past two years. AjiFu, which 36Kr recently contacted, is one of them. AjiFu is a product under the American brand agebox, and its core product is an "IGF - 1 growth factor sensitizer". Since entering the Chinese market at the end of 2022, the number of child users has exceeded 40,000, and the comprehensive repurchase rate of users has reached 70%. The size of the China - region team has also rapidly expanded from dozens of people to hundreds of people today.

Why can a dietary supplement for height - increasing become a "blockbuster product"? Recently, Ryan Luo, the head of agebox's Asia - Pacific region, and product expert Ben Wang shared their experiences with 36Kr.

Ryan Luo mentioned that when discussing the Chinese market, it is necessary to distinguish the current "height - increasing" market first. Currently, the "height - increasing" market is basically statistically based on growth hormones, targeting only the market for short - stature children whose height is below P3 (the shortest 3 among 100 children, corresponding to the predicted adult heights of 161.3 cm for males and 150.4 cm for females).

However, beyond "getting injections for treatment", it is also a reasonable demand for non - short - stature children above P3 to want to grow taller. It "is more like a demand for a better life", such as getting better employment and mating opportunities.

AjiFu's product positioning is exactly the latter. "Based on a statistics of over 40,000 product users in the Chinese region in the past two years, the users are mainly concentrated between P3 - P75, with a median of P25, which indicates that the direction we have chosen is correct."

From the product dimension, the "IGF - 1 growth factor sensitizer" mainly extracts effective ingredients from food and enhances the sensitivity of ordinary children to growth factors to meet the scientific and safe height - increasing needs.

Ben Wang introduced that in principle, there is a core axis "GH - IGF - 1 axis (growth hormone - insulin - like growth factor - 1 axis)" in the human body that affects growth and development. When the pituitary gland secretes growth hormone, the growth hormone enters the liver and stimulates the liver to synthesize IGF - 1 (insulin - like growth factor - 1). IGF - 1 can act on the growth plate at the epiphyseal end, promote the division and proliferation of chondrocytes, and realize bone growth.

 Image source: AjiFu

The "IGF - 1 growth factor sensitizer" mainly enhances the effectiveness of the GH - IGF - 1 axis in the process of children's growth and development. On the one hand, by increasing the number and sensitivity of growth hormone receptors (GHR) on the surface of liver cells, it increases the expression level of IGF - 1 and promotes the liver to secrete more IGF - 1. On the other hand, by enhancing the sensitivity of chondrocytes in the growth plate at the epiphyseal end to IGF - 1, it promotes the longitudinal development of bones, improves the growth rate without over - drafting future growth potential, and increases the adult height of children.

"Our R & D idea is to achieve 'food - grade raw materials, clinical - grade efficacy', and develop dietary supplement products with the 'effective' standard of pharmaceutical - grade."

It is understood that AjiFu has launched 6 clinical studies on the "IGF - 1 growth factor sensitizer" in China. Including single - center and multi - center studies, there are 45 participating institutions. The research - covered groups include both short - stature children caused by rare diseases such as Silver - Russell syndrome (SRS) and non - short - stature children with slow growth before puberty, delayed growth and development, and growth retardation.

"We hope that agebox's products can truly solve problems. Frankly speaking, there have been many height - increasing solutions and products outside the hospital in the past, but most of them have unclear mechanisms of action and lack reliable clinical data. Some are even height - increasing placebos. The Chinese market doesn't need another height - increasing placebo, and clinical research is the best way to tell the market whether a product is effective." Ben Wang said.

In terms of market promotion, the AjiFu team said that "after the product was launched in the Chinese market, no large amount of market promotion resources were invested." "We believe that the significant market demand and the effects shown by the product are the core factors driving sales growth. In the past, the height - increasing needs of children above P3 were generally not met. Although there are various height - increasing products and ingredients on the market, when used within a safe dosage, they basically cannot achieve an effective growth - promoting effect (i.e., a significant improvement in height SDS)."

In this case, if a product can scientifically intervene in the secretion and utilization efficiency of IGF - 1 from the main axis of children's growth and development, promote children's growth without inducing precocious puberty or over - drafting growth space, its "effect itself will theoretically bring great potential energy".

Timeline - wise, the market promotion of the "IGF - 1 growth factor sensitizer" can be roughly divided into two stages: from 2022 to early 2023 was the non - market - promotion stage, during which the product was used by a small - scale group of children of employees and relatives and friends to test the product's effectiveness. In May 2023, the company launched its first clinical study and simultaneously promoted AjiFu nationwide.

"We didn't use the common traffic - promotion methods in the consumer goods market. Instead, we insist on promoting evidence - based medical evidence such as scientific research, cell experiments, animal experiments, and clinical studies. On the user side, we cooperate with vertical channels such as height - management institutions, IP influencers, private - domain institutions, and high - end mother - and - baby stores, hoping to establish user connections and conduct user education through professional channels, and gradually let parents form the height - management concept of 'injecting for children below P3 and taking AjiFu for those above P3'." Ryan Luo said.

It is reported that the Chinese market is the first key promotion market for AjiFu outside the United States. In addition, starting from 2025, the markets in Japan, South Korea, and Southeast Asia will also be fully launched. On the one hand, compared with Westerners, the people in the Asia - Pacific region have a relatively stronger demand for height - increasing. On the other hand, the acceptance of dietary supplements in Japan and South Korea is higher. For example, many South Korean people regard height - increasing as a type of "medical beauty" project and are willing to try various "black technologies".

Finally, in terms of the team and technical platform: Although the Asia - Pacific business of AjiFu started in 2022, agebox established a laboratory in the United States in 2009 and built a drug - screening platform based on primary cells. This drug - screening platform follows a phenotype - driven (PDD) R & D idea, which is suitable for studying life - health problems with multiple targets or complex mechanisms of action, such as endocrine and nerve - related disciplines. The PDD drug - screening platform forms a biological data map of extract - cell - signaling pathway by studying the effects of various dietary extracts around the world on cell activities and metabolism. Through this data map, the company can now develop various dietary supplement formulas in a targeted manner. Currently, the laboratory has developed more than 50 formulas.

In addition to the "IGF - 1 growth factor sensitizer", based on the phenotype - driven drug - screening platform, agebox has accumulated a large amount of cell - experiment data and is promoting the R & D of subsequent reserve pipelines, such as products for reducing high uric acid in children and products for children with autism.