OptiBiotix Health plc (AIM:OPTI), a life sciences business developing compounds to tackle obesity,high cholesterol, diabetes and skin care, announced this morning that it has had an abstract accepted for presentation at ProBiota 2018 in Barcelona from 7-9 February 2018. ProBiota is the leading annual event for the global prebiotic, probiotic and the microbiome focused food and pharma industries. The conference is world renowned as a key meeting place for a community of scientists and industry leaders who want to translate science into new products in the growing supplements and ingredients market.
The abstract reports on the identification and development of a prebiotic which selectively enhances the growth of Lactobacillus rhamnosus GG (“LGG(R) “) in the gut. LGG(R) is the world’s best documented probiotic strain and has been described in more than 1000 scientific publications and 300 clinical studies. Christian Hansen acquired the rights and related business for LGG(R) for a cash consideration of EUR73 million in September 2016. LGG(R) is contained within DSM’s Culturelle(R) probiotic range which is the best-selling probiotic supplement brand in the world.
The abstract will be presented as a poster and oral presentation and demonstrates OptiBiotix’s ability to identify and develop targeted prebiotics which can selectively enhance the growth rate and health benefits of specific microbial species, and in doing so enhance the efficacy of probiotic products. This new product concept utilises OptiBiotix’s patented approach to the development of optimised synbiotics with the potential to enhance probiotic health benefits, and provide product differentiation in a probiotic market forecast to be worth more than $46.5bn by 2020 (Markets and Markets).
OptiBiotix has filed patents protecting its discoveries of an optimised prebiotic for Lactobacillus rhamnosus, and LGG(R), adding to to its extensive existing IP portfolio in this area.
Commenting, Stephen O’Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix said: “We believe this is the first reported publication of an optimised synbiotic for LGG(R) , one of the world’s best documented and best-selling probiotic brands. The development of species specific prebiotics which can selectively enhance the growth and health benefits of existing probiotic products is a growing area of interest to the probiotic industry. The ability to create designer prebiotics which can selectively modulate the growth of an individual species and be used in combination to improve the efficacy of existing probiotics, or by itself to modify an individual’s microbiome to improve health, is a hugely exciting development in global microbiome research and product development. We believe we are fast approaching a future where microbiome products will make a significant contribution to the prevention, management and treatment of disease. The ability to create designer ingredients which can precision engineer the microbiome to improve health places OptiBiotix at the forefront of this global health trend.”
