OptiBiotix Health plc (AIM: OPTI), a life sciences business developing compounds to tackle obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes, has said to DirectorsTalk that further to the announcement made 9 July 2015 it has signed a second agreement with the IQOG (Instituto de Química Orgánica General) of the Spanish National Research Council in Madrid.
The agreement extends OptiBiotix development programmes creating sweet healthy oligosaccharides (carbohydrates that consists of a small number of sugars):-
i. The first research programme which started in September 2015, is designed to create sweet low calorie sugars using different bacterial strains.
ii. This second program incorporates natural sweeteners into existing or new oligosaccharide chains with the potential to create sweet products with functional health benefits.
This agreement is in line with the Company’s plans to use funds from the November 2015 placing to create a new SweetBiotix(R) platform and enhances its capability to create sweet, calorie free sugars, as healthy alternatives to existing products. This increases the number of oligosaccharides under development with sugars from both programmes being subjected to human studies (taste, texture, after-taste) throughout 2016 with the most promising candidates progressing to commercialisation. OptiBiotix has trademarked this new sweet prebiotic concept as a SweetBiotix(R) .
Stephen O’Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, commented: “OptiBiotix’s sugar development programs have the potential to address a key requirement in the food industry, addressing international concerns over the impact of sugar on obesity, highlighted by the recent announcement of a UK sugar tax. If successful, this research creates the prospect of replacing ‘unhealthy’ sugars in existing products with non digestible, low calorie, healthy, SweetBiotix(R) . As the food industry responds to growing public and political concerns over traditional sugars and artificial sweeteners, we expect growing interest in safer, healthy alternatives such as our SweetBiotix(R) .”
