OptiBiotix Health plc (LON:OPTI), a life sciences business developing products to tackle obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes, announced today that it has entered into a scale up and manufacturing agreement with Tata Chemicals (“TCL”). The Agreement grants TCL a right to scale up and exclusively manufacture galacto-oligosaccharide produced by OptiBiotix’s LP-LDL® strain (LPGOS) for the use in food and Over The counter (OTC) products, subject to successful development of LPGOS at pilot level.
Tata Chemicals Limited (“TCL” or “Tata Chemicals”), is a global science company active in industrial chemicals, food and nutrition, and agriculture business, and is listed on the Indian stock Exchange. It is part of the Tata Group of Companies which employs over 660,000 employees with annual revenues in 2015/16 of $103.51 billion. Tata Chemicals Food and Nutrition business is a major supplier of salts, spices, and nutritional solutions to the food, beverage, nutraceutical and pharmaceutical industries within India and increasingly across global markets.
The Agreement brings together TCL’s expertise in the manufacture of galacto-oligosaccharides with OptiBiotix’s microbiome modulation expertise to create products which selectively modify an individual’s microbiome to improve health. LPGOS has been shown in gut models to:-
i. Increase the growth and biological activity of OptiBiotix’s cholesterol reducing strain (LP-LDL®), leading to a threefold increase in the strains cholesterol lowering ability
ii. Modify an individual’s existing microbiome reducing cholesterol by up 22%
LPGOS is the first of a range of ingredients being developed by OptiBiotix which can modify an individual’s current microbiome to improve health. OptiBiotix believes this creates opportunities to use LPGOS in a wide range of food products to help reduce cardiovascular risk factors and improve health. These ingredients are heat resistant and stable during processing, which creates the opportunity to incorporate low cost, safe, ingredients which modulate specific elements of the microbiome in a wide range of food products.
Stephen O’Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix Health Plc, commented: “We are pleased to report this Agreement with Tata Chemicals which creates the opportunity to scale up and manufacture galacto-oligosaccharide produced by our LP-LDL® strain (LPGOS). Tata chemicals is one of India’s leading suppliers of food ingredients with many well known and respected brands. We believe the combination of OptiBiotix’s ability to develop ingredients which can modify an individual’s microbiome, and Tata’s research and manufacturing expertise, international reputation, and global reach, places both companies at the forefront of global microbiome research and product development. I believe we are fast approaching the next stage in the development of the microbiome in healthcare, where scientists have the ability engineer components of the microbiome to prevent, manage and treat many of today’s chronic lifestyle diseases. This agreement takes both companies further down the path of translating the science of the microbiome field into products which will improve the health and wellbeing of people around the world.”
