Meet the junior who invented Thrive+, the anti-hangover pill

The Tab sat down with Brooks Powell, 2017, for a conversation about his product, Thrive+: a pill that reduces hangovers and may help prevent alcoholism.

So Brooks, where are you from, what class are you, and what’s your major?

I was recruited to Princeton for swimming, and initially I joined the class of 2016. My junior fall, I decided to take a year off to do Thrive+. Now I’m coming back this spring, so I guess I’m officially in the class of 2017. I’m a Religion major.

What’s your concentration in Religion?

Mostly Christian Ethics and Philosophy. I’ll dabble in New Testament studies. In fact, my JP topic is connected to Thrive+. My topic is proposing an ethic for how humans relate to physical matter, and I use alcohol as a case study. I’m proposing the idea that matter is neutral, but its morality is determined by how humans interact with and use it. For example, alcohol is neutral. It is neither good nor bad. It’s how people choose to use alcohol that can either empower, or inhibit and enslave, the user.

How does Thrive+ work?

Thrive+ reduces alcohol’s chemical change on your brain during intoxication and withdrawal. So basically, a large part of hangovers is short-term alcohol withdrawal. Lights feel too bright, noises are too loud, all this is part of short-term alcohol withdrawal. You experience less alcohol withdrawal if you take Thrive+ after drinking. Less withdrawal equals reduced hangover symptoms.

Can Thrive+ actually prevent and cure alcoholism?

Theoretically, and with some caveats, yes! It’s been proven in rat models (its method of action identified), and has a strong chance of doing the same in humans. However, though humans are extremely similar at the neuroreceptor level with rats, we are a bit more complicated. They can become dependent on alcohol for non-neurochemical reasons, such as use of alcohol to cope with painful life experiences. We lay out the possibilities and limitations in a Princeton paper (here).

How did you actually get the idea to create an anti-hangover pill?

I can only take passive credit for it. During my sophomore fall, I started researching about hangovers in my spare time, what I could do to expedite the recovery process. It began as more of a personal interest. My family is cursed with really bad hangovers. My mom can have like two small glasses of wine and be sluggish until noon. While I was looking into this, I also happened to be in a neuroscience class with Professor Sam Wong. Essentially, in my own research I came up across this article in early 2014 about Dihydromyricetin (DHM), an anti-intoxication medication.

How did you go about getting Thrive+ FDA approved?

So I presented this finding to my professor, and after about 20 conversations we both concluded that it looked to be safe and effective for human consumption. We both personally tried it…(he laughs) and loved it.

I took DHM and combined it with a few other ingredients known to have hangover-reducing effects, like vitamins. Then, I approached a pharmaceutical manufacturer and worked with them to tweak the formula. I was also mentored by a Princeton alumnus, Andrew Chadeayne who specialized in Chemical Patent Law, to file a patent. Afterwards, the pharmaceutical manufacturer produced the product. Since DHM is technically classified in the US as a food, not a drug, we thankfully didn’t have to go through the long and expensive FDA drug trial to gain approval.

Do you think that erasing hangovers could promote unsafe drinking, like drinking more and more often?

It depends on the type of person. What I like is that, based on how DHM chemically works in Thrive+, the choice to drink is put on the volitional side of the user. The person can say “I want to drink,” rather than “I need to drink.” Thrive+ gives the choice back to the user. We want people to say “I want to drink,” rather than the next morning say, “I need a Bloody Mary because I’m in pain.”

Have you seen any competition in the market?

There was really nothing in the beginning. Pretty much there was just one a company selling just straight DHM at a really extortionate rate per gram. Not many people were buying it either. We were the first to combine DHM with other ingredients known to be effective for treating hangovers. Upon launch, Thrive+ received a lot of press in the US and internationally. A few months after that, a number of copyists came into the market, which is frustrating even though Thrive+ is and will continue to be the biggest name–but hey, that’s why you file for patents!

Do you personally use it?

Oh yeah, I use it every time I drink. I liken it to protein powder. For the logic types out there: protein is to working out, as Thrive+ is to consuming alcohol. When you work out, you take protein powder to recover faster; when you drink alcohol, you take Thrive+ to recover quicker.

How have customers responded to Thrive+?

People love it. They say it works well. We have a ton of repeat customers, including currently competing US Olympic Gold Medalists. I always get a kick when sending Thrive+ to the US Olympic Training Center.

To greater understand customer satisfaction, we actually did a study as part of the patent process. We had people drink as much as they wanted to and recorded what they drank. They were a pretty extreme group; I think each had an average of 11 drinks across the night. We then asked them questions like “On a scale of 1-10 how does your head/stomach feel?” Ten was “Cut my head off,” 0 was “I don’t feel like I drank at all.” We compared these responses to those of a group who drank a similar amount, but had taken Thrive+. There was an average 50% reduction of reported hangover symptoms across the board when compared to a prior night of similar drinking.

What about negative feedback?

The few people that give us like one-star ratings on Amazon leave comments like “Definitely feeling much better, but might be a little down.” That’s strange to me because these are people who also give fish oil five stars. Why would you give fish oil five stars? You can’t even feel the effects of fish oil. You have to believe in its efficacy. With Thrive+,  at least there are immediately noticeable effects!

And your Princeton friends? What do they think of Thrive+?

Princeton’s a hard place to sell and promote to. It’s a more skeptical, conservative market. When I was in San Francisco for a recent board meeting, I visited a bar with suitcase in tow. Within a half hour, I had reluctantly given away all the samples I was saving for another company because people wanted to try it so bad. I was amazed, that would never happen at Princeton!

Having said that, last year, I used to go out to the street with just a Thrive+ t-shirt on and a backpack. I’d to sell $100-worth by just being out for a couple hours. I hope it’s more when I return!

What’s up next for the company?

We’ve grown a lot in this past year. We went from selling nothing to selling almost $2,000 a week in just a few months. Now we’re about to ramp up as we launch a new free sample program and release a new product. We also just signed a distribution deal with Singapore, our first international deal!

We definitely want to try some, where can we get our hands on it?

Go to www.thrivecure.com, or on check us out on Amazon.

(See what happens when our editor Harry tried out thrive here.)