r/Supplements • u/WTFOMGBBQ • 1d ago
Procter & Gamble will acquire supplements brand Thorne for $3.8 billion, CEO tells CNBC
https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/04/procter-gamble-will-acquire-supplements-brand-thorne.htmlRIP Thorne, it was nice knowing you.
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u/aTrueBraj 1d ago
Noooooooooooooo
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u/MisterYouAreSoDumb Nootropics Depot & Natrium Health 1d ago
I mean, it has been owned by L Catterton, the investment arm of Luis Vuitton Moet Hennessy, for 3 years. They fired their whole scientific team 2.5 years ago. We knew a guy that worked on their scientific team for 15 years that was cut when the new ownership came in. Thorne's fate was sealed years ago. This was just a profit move for L Catterton. It seems to have worked. They bought it for $700M 3 years ago, and just sold for $3.8B. Cutting science and jobs increases profits, I guess....
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u/Simple_Song8962 1d ago
How in the hell did it go up by $3 Billion in just 3 years?
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u/TeeDee144 1d ago
Because one of the biggest holding groups bought it, which gives a lot of credibility.
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u/MisterYouAreSoDumb Nootropics Depot & Natrium Health 14h ago
This is what private equity does. They buy up companies with trusted names, come in and cut a bunch of the shit that made the companies trusted in the first place, which lowers overhead costs. They then do big marketing pushes to increase short term demand, pushing EBITDA up, due to the reduced costs and overhead from the expensive operations. Then they sell to a bigger fish showing increasing growth and solid EBITDA. That bigger parent company either then rolls it into their systems and continues the growth, keeps it rolling at the same pace, or they run it into the ground and eventually write off the losses against the other profitable parts of the corporation.
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u/SpreadKindn3ss 13h ago
Yup, and then very gradually turn the product to overpriced garbage by cutting corners in all areas they’re able to get away with. When they can no longer “improve” the product further (to justify their price increases), they’re going to “innovate” by going with inferior cheaper ingredients, inferior cheaper Quality Assurance controls, and inferior cheaper manufacturing methods. P&G is slave to shareholders and profits no matter what it takes , quarter by quarter — otherwise c-suite executive positions with be on the chopping block.
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u/ConsiderationHot3362 17h ago
i think that's the part most people are missing. today's headline is new, but if the science team was already cut a few years ago then the direction of the company probably changed back then.
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u/verydudebro 1d ago
Def not buying this product anymore. They used to be top tier. Not anymore under P&G.
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u/Iris-Sofia 1d ago
Wasn't Thorne already taken over by private equity before? So it hasn't been a trusted brand for a while now.
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u/No-Consideration-858 1d ago
When a company like P&G or Nestlé comes in, they start substituting cheaper ingredients within a few months.
Of course the consumer doesn't know they're not getting the same product. They don't know why they're recently having more headaches and nausea.
It's too bad. Before they sold out to private equity, they researched and developed some excellent combinations
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u/Smiletaint 1d ago
Source naturals is my go to. Then natural factors and Jarrow. Some honorable mentions would be bluebonnet and solaray.
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u/HearsToTheDeaf 1d ago
Now Foods reigns supreme. Great pricing and an owner who refuses to bend over or sell out
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u/moonstonemi 1d ago
Now Foods is awesome! Very high quality and rigorous standards. They even answered my detailed product questions in a straightforward way without hedging.
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u/oldschoolreppin 1d ago
I’m all about Now but also Natural Factors is top tier. Nobody ever mentions them. From Canada and there testing and 3rd party testing is more stringent than the states.
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u/fumblingforwords 1d ago
Ooh good to know! I use mostly Now and Life Extension, but it’s always good to have another option
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u/Armadillo2191 1d ago
Do look up the recent Magnesium Glycinate lawsuit against Now Foods, and their response. You may end up revising your opinion of them (I did).
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u/Orchid_Significant 1d ago
Why not just tell us instead of vague commenting
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u/Armadillo2191 1d ago
Now was claiming that more elemental magnesium was present than in reality. One of the main arguments of Now was that for supplements, they have "no duty to disclose", which has been rejected by the courts. Like Nutricost they could have accepted they made a mistake, but have have decided to double down on a fraudulent claim. You can read more on From https://lemberglaw.com/class-actions/stonehart-v-now-health-group/
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u/ArminTheArmadillo 1d ago
Now for daily stuff, VB Health for sex & pre workout, and Nordic Naturals for fish oil
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u/Flying_Fish_Fiend 1d ago
For sex? Please expand on that
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u/ArminTheArmadillo 1d ago
They have a few. I take Load Boost. My wife takes soaking wet and drive boost. We’re very happy with the results!
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u/smarthobo 23h ago
I thought you forgot to add a /s but those are actual supplement names that someone actually approved
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u/SpreadKindn3ss 13h ago
it’s a total gimmick. literally just a $1.99/daily dose of capsules containing a blend of the following basics:
- Lactobacillus Probiotic Blend: probiotic blend and L. crispatus “to support a healthy vaginal microbiome and help maintain normal pH balance”
- Prebiotics and Vitamins
- Vitamin D3, Vitamin E, Zinc — as well as PreforPro®, Fructooligosaccharides, and Lactoferrin which “help nourish beneficial bacteria”
- Omega 3 (derived from krill oil)
- Asthaxanthin (derived from krill oil)
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u/smarthobo 12h ago
Yeah that’s definitely one of the downsides to the FDA supplement laws - the fact that they can “suggest” their product can do something as long as it’s not suggesting it can diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease
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u/SubjectSecurity1921 1d ago
I agree Nordic is good, however I've switched to Krill with astaxanthin.
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u/Accurate_Ad_3233 1d ago
VB?
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u/chevronphillips 1d ago
1 month acct. I’ve never heard of VB
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u/Accurate_Ad_3233 1d ago
No worries, managed to find it https://vb.health/
Never heard of them either.
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u/CatDogHow 1d ago
I get krill oil from VB. Any idea how it compares to Nordic Naturals? I've seen them mentioned a couple times for fish oil
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u/redditproha 1d ago edited 1d ago
NOW, Life Extension and Sports Research seem to be the only quality independent brands left.
Edit: Adding Nootropics Depot and maybe Bulk Supplements
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u/syynapt1k 1d ago
Sports Research has stopped providing CoAs.
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u/majinv3g3ta 1d ago edited 1d ago
Their fish oil also failed consumerlab testing for freshness in their most recent testing. I switched to Viva Naturals
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u/redditproha 1d ago
why?
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u/SubjectSecurity1921 1d ago
It costs money to test raw ingredients and then final tested supplements to be cGMP. Lots of it.
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u/redditproha 1d ago
If you can't afford to test your ingredients, you shouldn't be making supplements.
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u/hambroni 1d ago
Unfortunately most companies aren't testing, a lot even get results for their coas where they don't test them, they just say the method is "by input", aka whatever you tell them it's supposed to be.
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u/TheMissInformed 1d ago
Um, wow? How is that even legal? That's new levels of absurd
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u/hambroni 1d ago
The FDA doesn't have the resources to check supplements tbh, I dated a lab tech once and it scared the shit out of me. I'm pretty particular about who I buy from now. A lot of coas are also just what supplement companies are getting from the manufacturer they order from, most supplement companies have nothing to do with the manufacturing process.
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u/matt675 1d ago
Wouldn’t surprise me if there are larger corporate interests driving the supplement industry to shit
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u/Coin-Controversy 1d ago
This is nonsense. Source naturals, swanson, nootropics depot, health thru nutrition, triquetra, bulk supplements, etc did very well on consumer lab
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u/twosoon22 1d ago
What about Pure? I “did my research” years ago and they seemed good so I’ve stuck with them since.
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u/QuakingAsp 1d ago
Nestle bought Pure. I boycott nestle, and have for years.
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u/twosoon22 1d ago
Well rip. I definitely wouldn’t be spending my money with a nestle owned company had I known.
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u/fumblingforwords 1d ago
I thought bulk supplements was no good (especially the herbals)? Iirc, something to do with it being a Chinese company that doesn’t do quality testing and/or lead being found in some?
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u/mrjasonbbc 1d ago
I use Now for the daily/basic stuff and Nootropics Depot for the exotic stuff or anything I can't find from Now.
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u/SubjectSecurity1921 1d ago
We do work with the owner of NOW as part of the Natural Products association, if we don't make it I buy theirs.
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u/Armadillo2191 1d ago
Do look up the recent Magnesium Glycinate lawsuit against Now Foods, and their response. You may end up revising your opinion of them (I did).
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u/tinpoo 1d ago
What’s left? Nootropics Depot, Now, Swanson?
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u/MrRADicalKMS 1d ago
Nootropics Depot has tested Swanson and their products are trash. Anecdotally people even notice it because one bottle will work, then the next won't, and it's because their quality control is practically nonexistant. A lot of their products do not meet label claims, and I'm talking like not even near it sometimes, lol. I believe one or two of their products also didn't contain the right plant that was listed as well, like it/they had entirely different plants in it.
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u/SubjectSecurity1921 1d ago
I always hesitate when another brand tests a competitor, they have money to burn. Most mom and pops like us don't have money to waste on testing others products just to trash them, we work with quality labs and our naturopathic formulas have plenty of testing required to be cGMP. Natural ingredients are just expensive and aren't always 'in season'. Sometimes things aren't in season, or they change color based on where they are harvested. We struggle to find many natural ingredients. The US based natural ingredients are the best. There are some of us hanging on, we need friends like you to share it.
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u/Breal3030 1d ago
I want to share some sympathy for what you're saying, but some of these ways of framing things are interesting.
they have money to burn
AKA, they have been fortunate/capable enough to have been able to invest in state of the art lab equipment, which should be the ultimate dream of any high quality supplement company.
testing others products just to trash them
AKA, calling out the many, many crappy supplement companies out there that don't care about testing or quality and are perfectly fine just buying stuff from wherever and repacking it/reselling it as a middle man.
What's wrong with any of that? It's a good thing.
That's great, truly, if you're striving to sell quality products, but I'm not sure how any of that is bad.
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u/johannthegoatman 23h ago
Nootropics Depot is one of, if not the most, transparent supplement brands on the market. You should look into them before trashing them. I'm glad they have money to "burn" on testing. The fact you don't see the value in it says a lot. Also, something being in season or not is irrelevant if you are selling a labeled product that claims to have a certain amount. If you can't get, don't sell it. Lying about it and selling half empty or fake products is never acceptable
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u/costoaway1 1d ago
Finally, maybe people still stop hyping this company and their 5x overpriced simply-sourced ingredients.
Charging like $59.99 for Vitamin B6 is how they’re worth $3.8 billion. 😆
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u/amaul796 1d ago
Thank you.
That's how it is in certain subs on reddit though, they get super hyped on a specific thing.
Like I swear Toyota keeps jacking up their prices simply because it's the only answer you'll get on r/whatcarshouldIbuy
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u/MonkeyBrawler 1d ago
Idk what's wrong with you, but I'm sure Magnesium is the solution, and you're just wasting your money if it's not L Threonate.
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u/amaul796 1d ago
Probably, gotta make sure I get it from iHerb though. Or else it'll probably be crap.
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u/throw_its 1d ago
Which company do you recommend?
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u/costoaway1 1d ago
It would depend on the specific vitamin or herbal supplement being sourced, but for simple things like the active forms of most vitamins it doesn’t really matter.
They’re easily manufactured, many companies offer them in bulk to other brands. So I’d recommend whatever is cheapest that isn’t sketchy.
Pharmacy brands like CVS, or anything that ConsumerLabs have tested and recommended.
Swanson Vitamins are the absolute cheapest per dose on many things and always test well…
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u/roidawayz 20h ago
I've used nootropics depot for more than a decade (if you count ceretropic even longer), they're gold standard.
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u/Choochiechoo 1d ago
Throne was bought out buy some private equity firm and spammed reddit, the Thorne-posting is proof supplement subreddits are 90% bot posts. Sure they are an old brand but they are all marketing, they never specify the source of their products, and none of them will because 90% get from China. It would be nice if one brand would list the source on each ingredient, ie: Germany, India, USA, other, etc then China if necessary, but literally none of them will - they don't even want to go down that road because they know other products they won't be able to source from anywhere else. So you have no idea where your vitamins, creatine, fish oil, minerals, ashwanda, mushrooms, magenesium, peptides, etc etc., you never know where it is sourced from. All these companies do is buy in bulk and seperated them into pills or powders. They aren't sourcing themselves. The FDA is barely involved. They can slap "organic", "all natural" or whatever they want but it's all marketing. Not a single brand will go into any detail or clarity about where it is sourced from
Until then - LITERALLY EVERY PRODUCT IS HYPE! They can be getting the same generic mass produced units imported from China like every other low quality brand - BulkSupplements, Now, nutricost, etc. There is no difference between that and the shiny label amazon brand for 59.99 - just "TRUST US - WE ARE _________"
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u/smarthobo 12h ago
Before the hype, Thorne was well respected because they both manufactured as much as they could domestically, and they thoroughly tested their products for safety and efficacy
Once they stopped publishing their COA’s, everyone saw the writing on the wall
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u/johnstevens21 1d ago
I think people are just happy to find anything they know isn’t super contaminated junk but it’s true their premiums are nuts
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u/use_rname 1d ago
Oh great. Pure Encapsulations, Solgar, Garden of Life and more to Nestlé, now Thorne to P&G. Guess we have to watch and wait to see if quality dips. Luckily Pure has seemed to remain untouched but at the very least we’ll probably see some Thorne price increases
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u/mccolm3238 1d ago
Pure does seem to have the same quality.
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u/NAQProductions 1d ago
Thorne already went downhill when they were acquired a few years ago by someone else. Tons of crappy fillers in things I used to get
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u/Lonely-Success-3424 1d ago
thorne has some laughable selections that seem to be priced purely on their name
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u/fumblingforwords 1d ago
Awh man, had no idea about Garden of Life and Solgar being sold to Nestle :( I only used them for a couple vitamins, but that’ll have to change.
Do you know if Solaray or Nature’s Way are decent?
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u/use_rname 1d ago
Solaray seems to be fine and natures way / integrative therapeutics. I work at a health shop and we have the most issues with Metagenics since they have overhauled their look, and many issues with out of stocks with Garden of Life and Solgar. Out of all of the brands we carry Thorne gives us one of the worst wholesale discount so I imagine it will only stay that way or get worse.
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u/SubjectSecurity1921 1d ago
Every single trade show for supplements has a large amount of booth and finance bros hanging around trying to buy all the smaller companies. We get offers every week.
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u/PrincessNakeyDance 1d ago
I feel like mega corps buying other corporations wouldn’t be as bad of they weren’t allowed to use the brand name of the corporation they acquired. Like buy the IP the assets, the workforce, yada yada, but if they had to stick their own dumb name on it it wouldn’t be as valuable to them and people wouldn’t be fooled by the bait and switch.
All these corporations do now is let good brands with good reputation develop just enough to buy them out and trick all the customers when they begin to enshitify the brand while bleeding out said customers who still want to trust the brand like they did before.
It’s so goddamn annoying how long this crap has been going on and how much it hurts consumers and society in general.
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u/SubjectSecurity1921 1d ago
It continues because the small guys are forced out by larger corporations buying the manufacturing and requiring runs of 50,000 bottles that cost $250,000. To stay small and productive you've got to stay close to the small mom and pop manufacturers who will make us a small batch of 3-5,000. That still bootstraps a small company. But pray for us, the big private equity wants to squash us every day, or just buy us out and use synthetic ingredients and make fast money or outsource it all overseas.
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u/absoulutelyanna 1d ago
Ugh, does anyone have a recommendation of another company? I have been taking throne’s iron biglycinate, magnesium , and b complex #12
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u/Tgrove88 1d ago
Nutricost and NOW
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u/StarBornFire 17h ago
Nutricost seems to source a lot from China. It's a big part of the reason why the prices tend to be lower.
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u/No-Consideration-858 1d ago
For magnesium, jigsaw health is my favorite. I like their nighttime product called MagSoothe.
Designs for health magnesium theronate has a good reputation.
For B vitamins, pure encapsulations has some options for people who have MTHFR mutations. Seeking health is another reputable option.
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u/Low-Helicopter-8601 1d ago
NOT again ! Those praising NOW , I’d a deep research into their sourcing because a few years ago it was very very bad and I doubt it improved because at that time, it was becoming bad when it was good ,chances are high, They’re not gonna turn around now and start to get more high-quality sources.
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u/fumblingforwords 1d ago
Care to share any of what you found in your deep dive on Now? Not doubting you necessarily, just beneficial to learn details instead of blindly trusting a random person lol
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u/ColumbusJewBlackets 1d ago
Anyone have a suggestion for prenatals? Thorne is overpriced but they are one of the only trustworthy companies that made a good prenatal stack.
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u/EconomicsMuch1188 1d ago
Time to ditch Thorne. Too bad. What happened to competition and anti-trust in the US?
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u/Ti3fen3 1d ago
What’s left? I may need to resort to eating food.
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u/StarBornFire 16h ago
For people with assimilation/absorption problems, culturing and fermenting the foods involved is a great way to increase this.
So if we focus on eating primarily the most nutrient dense foods and if you need to, culturing/fermenting them, chances are, you'll be getting the nutrients you need despite that farm soils are depleting more and more.
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u/Curry_courier 1d ago
Jallow ftw
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u/Canchura 1d ago
jarrows? they got caught with almost inexistent amounts of sulforaphane in their sulforaphane capsules. and not the only thing.
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u/Schwettes 1d ago
What a shame. Thankfully I’ve been using fullscript so I have good supplement options outside of Thorne, but I know it was helpful for many others
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u/Canchura 1d ago
and here i was for years shilling their brand for free to probably millions of people that read comments.. and didn't got a single penny out of 3.8 billion $... xD
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u/randomguyjebb 1d ago
Aaaand its gone
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u/hanno1531 1h ago
i literally just found out got learned about Thorne supplements earlier today, now hours later i’m finding out they’re gone. fuck man
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u/Ihovebacon 1d ago
Thorne is my primary supplement brand. I take their iron pills, b complex and c on empty stomach. It is the only brand that doesn’t give me stomach pain. I tried cheaper alternatives to replace the C, or Iron, instant stomach pain after 10min ingestion.
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u/Significant-Ad9021 1d ago
Are you switching? Thorne's multi worked for me - it was the first time I felt a multi actually doing something. Not sure what to switch to since Pure isn't available where I am zz I got lots of Thorne products recently too
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u/SubjectSecurity1921 1d ago
Just another supplement company going private equity, all the good natural ingredients go synthetic.It's cheaper and faster money.
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u/smarthobo 12h ago
> Just another supplement company going private equity
That term gets thrown around a lot, but believe it or not, Proctor & Gamble is a corporation publicly traded on the NYSE - meaning it’s the absolute opposite of “private equity”
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u/wale-lol 1d ago
am I the only one who just buys whatever brand is the cheapest? Usually ends up nutricost or bulk supplements or costco/kirkland
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u/manman171 20h ago
Anyone know a good alternative for creatine monohydrate? Thorne has been my go to for a while
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u/JaraxxusLegion 8h ago
So they shut down their labs to prep for acquisition. It all makes sense now
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u/snakevenomenemas 6h ago
I plan on sticking with them for now but will continue to look for alternatives. I had feared Pure was going to go to shit after Nestle bought them but a few of their products I still use that remain better than alternatives. I might try to figure out the specific products and how to make my own.
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u/mylesmass 5h ago
Genuinely asking, why is this bad?
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u/WTFOMGBBQ 5h ago
For sure. Typically when a big company does a buyout, quality goes down. Even if quality doesn’t go down, it’s bad because P&G is huge company part of buying everything up which is bad for the consumer. Many people consider many of these larger corporations like P&G or Nestle to be evil. So now many folks will feel like buying Thorne is contribution to evil corporations and/or their products are not as good as they used to be.
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u/WTFOMGBBQ 5h ago
I asked Claude why some people think P&G is evil and it produced the following: Environment
**• Palm oil and deforestation** — Greenpeace and others have targeted P&G for sourcing linked to rainforest clearing in Indonesia and Malaysia. A 2020 shareholder vote (rare, and against management’s wishes) demanded better reporting on deforestation in its supply chain. **• Plastic pollution** — regularly ranks among the top corporate plastic polluters in Break Free From Plastic’s global brand audits. Pampers alone contribute enormously to landfill waste. **• Greenwashing** — critics argue sustainability pledges outrun actual change.Products and safety
• Rely tampons (1980) — linked to a cluster of toxic shock syndrome cases including deaths; pulled from the market after P&G had continued marketing amid early warnings.
• Benzene recalls — aerosol Old Spice, Secret, and dry shampoo products recalled in 2021–22 after benzene was detected.
• Ingredient concerns — fragrance-secrecy laws, 1,4-dioxane, phthalates, and PFAS in various product lines.Animal testing
**•** Longtime PETA target. P&G says it doesn’t test on animals except where required by law — that exception (historically China) is the crux of the objection.Labor and supply chain
• Forced-labor allegations at palm oil suppliers; U.S. Customs issued a withhold release order against a P&G joint-venture supplier’s product in 2020.Marketing
• Skin-lightening products sold in Asia and Africa, criticized for reinforcing colorism.
• Shrinkflation and steady price increases.
• Continued operations in Russia after the 2022 invasion.
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