Our Story

Our founders are 3 ex-pharma professionals and a physician.

During the global pandemic we discovered the usefulness of dietary supplements in making our bodies more resilient. We, like most people, were initially overwhelmed by the rows and rows of supplements in our stores and online.

We didn’t know what to believe, so we used our decades of expertise in medicine and pharmaceutical science to find what works.

We discovered that by combining 6 well-researched ingredients in a specific ratio we could robustly increase our everyday resilience and vitality safely, without a prescription, and add it to what we were already taking. This was the first time any of us actually noticed a difference we could feel and see after taking any dietary supplement.

We decided to create a company because this needs to exist in the world. People are seeking answers.

WellCyte Vitality™ uses pharmaceutical rigor and discipline to maximize safety and benefit so you know what you’re getting and why.  

This means we pay attention to the details based on the best available evidence. These include, but are not limited to:

  • Safety and tolerability – both short and long term
  • Benefit – how an ingredient can support a person’s wellbeing
  • Pharmacodynamics – what the ingredient does to the body
  • Pharmacokinetics – what the body does to the ingredient
  • Compatibility with other supplements or medications
  • Compliance with all FDA and FTC regulations.
  • Manufacturing in cGMP-certified facilities
  • Testing - all ingredients for amounts and purity
  • Education - understanding the "why"
  • Partnership with providers and clients for continuous improvement
  • Success factors encouraging consistency for maximum client benefit over time

We aim to underpromise and overdeliver. There is a lot of research and work behind every ingredient, amount, ratio, and mixture. We want you to be pleasantly surprised.

Everything at WellCyte Vitality™ is designed so we can trust and recommend our work to ourselves, our families and friends. All 4 founders, our wives and partners, and many friends and family take our products every day to perform at our best. We are all on a journey together to live our best lives.

We hope our work benefits you on your journey towards living your best life.

Our Founders
Jonathan Fenstad, MBA - Chief Executive Officer
  • 20 years of specialty pharmaceutical sales, marketing and salesforce effectiveness experience.
  • Launched 11 prescription medications and 13 new indications to improve human health.
  • 6 of these medications are either 1st-in-class or have distinct mechanisms of action.
  • Medical specialties covered include psychiatry, neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, rheumatology and primary care.
  • Founded the biotechnology startup company Neurovail in 2016 to develop and bring to market a pharmaceutical compound licensed from the Arnsten Lab at Yale University.
  • April 2020: changed the mission of Neurovail to create innovative nutraceutical solutions with well-known ingredients that do not require a prescription.
  • July 2024: Founded WellCyte Innovations, Inc with Harry Penner, Dr. Alan Hutchison and Dr. Lonnie Lassiter to bring the fruits of these efforts to the world. WellCyte Innovations, Inc is the parent company of WellCyte Vitality Nutraceuticals. (Fun fact: WellCyte means healthy cell.)
  • Earned a Master's degree in Business Administration (MBA) with a healthcare focus from Yale University.
Harry H. Penner Jr., JD - Chairman and Chief Counsel

Harry Penner has virtually a lifetime of experience in Pharma and biotech: as developer of new life science companies since 2001; as President, CEO, and Vice Chair of Neurogen Corporation (NASDAQ: NRGN), a neuroscience company spun out of Yale from 1993 to 2001; as Executive Vice President of Novo Nordisk A/S, initially in Denmark from 1985 to 1988 as global Executive Vice President and General Counsel, then in the US from 1988 to 1993 as President & CEO of Novo Nordisk of North America; and as BioScience Advisor to the Governor and the State of Connecticut. He holds degrees from Virginia (BA), Fordham (JD) and NYU (LLM - Int’l). 
Dr. Alan Hutchison, PhD - Chief Scientific Officer

Dr. Hutchison received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1979 and has over 35 years of drug discovery and development experience, both in big pharma (Pfizer and CIBA-Geigy) and biotechnology (Neurogen and Marinus) companies. He has been instrumental in the creation of multiple advanced clinical candidates both at CIBA-Geigy and Neurogen as well as being an inventor of over 100 patents and publications in the field of drug discovery. His work at Marinus has resulted in the FDA approval of ganaxolone as a first in class anti-epileptic agent.

Dr. Lonnie W. Lassiter, MD - Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Lonnie Lassiter is a physician, entrepreneur, and recognized leader in advanced wound care. With more than two decades of medical practice experience, he has dedicated his career to treating complex wounds and building innovative solutions that improve patient outcomes.

Dr. Lassiter earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, where he served as class president and was honored with multiple leadership and academic awards. He later completed his Master of Business Administration at Yale University where he distinguished himself academically and met fellow WellCyte co-founder Jonathan Fenstad.

In addition to his clinical practice, Dr. Lassiter is board certified by the American Board of Wound Medicine and Surgery and serves as a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists, where he also holds a board position.

Beyond his clinical and leadership roles, Dr. Lassiter has founded and led multiple health care organizations, including Wound Care Specialists, Solor Inc. (a medical practice management firm) and The Wound Group (a consulting firm). His work reflects a commitment to excellence in medicine, innovation in healthcare delivery and the pursuit of better outcomes for patients across the United States.

Our Model:

  1. Apply pharmaceutical rigor and discipline to dietary supplements.
  2. Bring these innovations directly to health, wellness, and fitness providers for the benefit of their patients and clients.
  3. Create research collaborations to advance the science.
WellCyte