Eugene's Euchol phytosterol technology is marketed by agribusiness Archer Daniels Midlands (ADM) as part of its CardioAid family of ingredients in Europe and North America.
According the company, business is going so well that it is constructing new facilities set to double the size of its current property.
"The market for our CholZero product line is expanding with greater consumer awareness and growing demand from new and existing customers. said Eugene CEO Seung Kwon Noh. "With our AD/ADD biotechnology and other nutraceutical products in our development pipeline, the new headquarters facility will provide Eugene Science with capacity for strong growth next year and beyond."
Eugene's first commercial heart disease product, CholZero(CZ), is a patented, nanoscience-based, water-soluble functional food ingredient containing corn or soybean sterols that help maintain healthy cholesterol levels by inhibiting its absorption.
A US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) heart disease health claim for phytosterols has been in effect since 2003 and says, as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, vegetable oil sterol esters "may reduce the risk of heart disease". The claim calls for a serving of at least 0.65g of the sterol esters twice daily with meals.
The phytosterols market is growing due to strong research showing the benefits of the ingredient and the recently approved heart health claim helping to raise the profile of these natural compounds.
Frost & Sullivan valued the US phytosterol market at $103.9m in 2005 and estimated it would double to $196.7m by 2012. The growth potential is at least in part driven by heart diseases, which are blamed for approximately 50 per cent of all mortalities in the industrialized world.
Construction of Eugene's facility is scheduled to begin next month on an initial 22,000 square feet of custom designed office, R&D and production space on six acres of land offering future additional build-out capacity - amounting to about twice the size of the Company's current property.