USANA HEALTH SCIENCES INC

We focus our research and development (“R&D”) efforts on developing and bringing to market high quality, science-based products that promote long-term health and wellness. Our R&D activities include developing products that are new to USANA and new to the industry, updating existing USANA-brand formulas to keep them current with the latest science, and adapting existing formulas to meet ever-changing consumer preferences, and regulations in global markets.

When developing and manufacturing our products, we follow the highest applicable industry quality standards, as established by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”), U.S. Pharmacopeia (“USP”), and other leading non-governmental agencies (“NGO”). Our ingredients are selected to meet a number of criteria and our quality control is maintained through controlled sourcing of raw ingredients, manufacturing, packaging and labeling, with testing occurring at multiple stages throughout the manufacturing process.

Our scientific staff includes experts on human nutrition, cellular biology, biochemistry, genetics, the microbiome, natural product chemistry, foods and cosmetic science, and clinical research. These experts continually review the latest published research on nutrition, present their findings at scientific conferences, publish in scientific journals, and collaborate with third-party researchers and institutions to identify possible new products and product upgrade opportunities.

The R&D team is also involved in protecting our proprietary position with exclusive ingredients, proprietary formulations, product-specific scientific validation, and in some cases, patent protection. Research continues to support our proprietary InCelligence technology, advances in microbiome supplementation, immune system support, stress adaptation, healthy aging, and brain health. In 2023, our research team experienced growth as we dedicated more resources to explore ingredients with a specific emphasis on cell-signaling. This expansion aims to uncover new leads for developing proprietary formulas intended to positively impact cellular health.

Our in-house research team has established and maintained good working relationships with scientists at a number of universities and research institutes, including the University of Washington, the University of Utah, The Foods for Health Institute at The University of California Davis, Roseman University of Health Sciences, University of Memphis, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (China) ("BUCM"), Peking University (China), Central Queensland University (Australia), University of Ghent (Belgium), and other academic institutions globally. These relationships help us continue to advance our knowledge, expertise and leadership in several areas of applied human nutrition. Working with these partners, we select products at all stages of development for preclinical and clinical studies, including funding multiple studies through BUCM. These preclinical and clinical studies are focused on cell-signaling and traditional Chinese medicine to serve as a pipeline of innovative ingredients. During 2023, we had seven clinical studies underway at multiple stages of completion. For completed studies, we published on manuscript, with the others currently under data analysis or manuscript preparation.

In fiscal years 2023, 2022, and 2021, we expended $11.4 million, $11.6 million, and $11.1 million, respectively, on product R&D activities. We expect to continue investing in R&D to advance our expertise and leadership in cellular nutrition, as well as overall health and wellness. In 2024, we plan to shift spending towards increased investments into early stage research and scientific investigations as we believe our trusted history of scientifically-supported products is a sustainable competitive advantage that provides a substantial barrier to entry for competitors who wish to enter our space.