P&G is buying Thorne for $3.8 billion, roughly 7.6x annual revenue. The manufacturing and NSF certifications probably stay put. The clinical research budget is the real question, and P&G's history with New Chapter isn't reassuring.
Thorne is being acquired by Procter & Gamble in a deal reportedly worth $3.8 billion, and it's a massive signal of how seriously P&G takes the supplement category.[1] We've only written about Thorne once before, in our look at the Thorne ashwagandha with Shoden launch, but the brand needs little introduction: a vertically integrated, practitioner-trusted supplement maker built on in-house testing and an unusually active clinical research program. We love it for the research program, but P&G is paying big for the reputation -- nearly an 8X multiple.
The real question is whether a public company answering to shareholders every quarter can keep funding the research that built said reputation.
What's Actually in the Deal
Procter & Gamble and Thorne signed a definitive agreement on August 4, 2026, with P&G buying the company from L Catterton's Flagship Fund.[2] The official release didn't disclose terms, but P&G CEO Shailesh Jejurikar told CNBC the price is $3.8 billion, or roughly 7.6 times Thorne's reported annual revenue of over $500 million.[1] That's more than five times what L Catterton paid to take Thorne private under three years ago, and CNBC also reported that Thorne fielded a competing bid from Haleon before P&G won out.[1] The deal still needs regulatory approval and is expected to close later this year.[2]
Jejurikar's framing was telling:
"We are really happy with the asset itself."[1]
-- Shailesh Jejurikar
"Asset" is certainly an interesting choice of words... and it's also one that makes practitioners incredibly nervous.
Where Thorne Fits in P&G's Health Portfolio
Note that P&G already sells supplements, so this isn't brand new territory for them. Metamucil and Align Probiotic sit in the same Personal Health Care division as New Chapter vitamins, Oral-B, and Vicks.[1] However, none of those brands carry Thorne's practitioner credibility or premium price point, and P&G's own announcement frames the deal around that gap: growing interest in self-care, prevention, and personalized wellness, where trusted science matters as much as price.[3] Paul Gama, Chief Executive Officer, Health Care at P&G, put it simply:
"Thorne has built a highly trusted brand at the forefront of personalized health."[3]
-- Paul Gama
Thorne CEO Colin Watts struck a similar note, framing P&G as a partner that lets Thorne grow without abandoning what built it.[4] The strategic logic isn't complicated. Whether it holds up over time and within the community is the more interesting question.
The Part That Probably Won't Change
The manufacturing side of this deal is the easiest part to predict. Thorne runs its own single-site facility in Summerville, South Carolina, and that vertical integration is a big part of what built its reputation.[2] The facility has passed every FDA inspection without a Form 483, and it holds NSF certification covering more than 40 NSF Certified for Sport products, each batch-tested against 300-plus substances banned by organizations like the NFL, NBA, and WADA. Thorne also holds an "A" rating from Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration, one of the strictest cGMP regulators around, and runs four rounds of internal testing on every product before release.
Thorne Ashwagandha delivers 120mg of Shoden® per capsule, and the clinical data behind that dose is worth a look. 18x higher bioavailability than standard ashwagandha.
None of that is easy to quietly unwind. These are third-party audited certifications, not discretionary spending, and losing any of them would cost Thorne the exact credibility P&G just paid a premium for. You take away NSF Certification, you lose sales, which P&G isn't going to want to do.
So if the worry is that the products will get worse, that's probably the smallest risk here.
The Real Question: What Happens to the Research Budget
The bigger uncertainty is actually upstream of manufacturing and product quality. Thorne's clinical research program includes partnerships with Cleveland Clinic, Columbia, Duke, Emory, Mount Sinai, and IT University of Copenhagen, and the company describes itself as the only supplement manufacturer collaborating with Mayo Clinic, a relationship going back to 2014. Kirin and Mitsui both made strategic investments in Thorne in 2018 to support that research infrastructure.
Thorne also launched 28 products in 2025 (you can monitor them on PricePlow.com/thorne) and expects another 20 to 25 in 2026, with recent launches driving roughly a fifth of total sales. So it's a highly active, well-funded science operation... but that's the part that's at long-term risk.
In fact, we may not even have to guess how this plays out. P&G already ran a version of this experiment on a supplement brand. In 2012, it bought New Chapter, a whole-food vitamin maker, assuring its roughly 175 employees in Vermont that no major changes to jobs or compensation were planned.[5] Founders Paul and Barbi Schulick stayed on for six years to run the science side of the business. Then, in 2018, they parted ways with P&G, and Barbi Schulick pointed to pressure from P&G's larger, slower-growing brands trickling down onto New Chapter's budget:
"We have empathy for the pressures on P&G."[6]
-- Barbi Schulick
New Chapter still exists today, 14 years later. It didn't get shut down. It just stopped being the brand it was built to be, once it stopped being the newest thing in the portfolio. Now it just does what corporations and PE firms have turned so many good companies into: profit farms. Nothing wrong with that, the products contain what's on the label, but we're not sure we should expect much difference with Thorne if we fast forward a decade from here.
Our Take: What We'll Be Watching
The good news is that Thorne isn't New Chapter. Its research relationships are bigger and more entrenched than a single founder-led science program, given that they span six academic medical centers, and its certifications are audited requirements rather than budget line items. At 7.6 times revenue, P&G paid for the trust that research built, so hopefully there's some incentive to protect it.
But New Chapter's decline took six years to show up, so that's the honest timeline for judging this deal too.
Here's what we'll be watching over the next year or two:
- Whether Thorne's launch pace holds near 20 to 25 products annually,
- Whether the Mayo Clinic and university partnerships stay intact, and
- Whether Thorne's in-house science leadership sticks around.
Check back in 5+ years and let's see.
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