German Anglo alliance to tap medical foods market

The cosmetics specialist will contribute up to €8m in, "milestone-related payments towards the development and clinical evaluation of new health and medical food products."

The companies hope to launch two clinically-backed cardiovascular health products by 2010.

Symrise's first venture into nutraceuticals occurred in 2006 when it acquired Kaden Biochemcials GmbH. Under the current arrangement, Symrise will invest an initial €2m in Cambridge Theranostics, a start-up established in 2002 that specialises in cardiovascular diagnostics and prophylaxis.

Cambridge Theranostics will select products from Symrise's portfolio of, "extracts and compounds to identify high value compounds that can best protect plasma lipoproteins from oxidative damage and afford effective protection against cardiovascular diseases."

After this process is complete, the company, originally a spin off from Cambridge University, will perform pharmacokinetic and clinical studies to back the products which are expected to be heart health supplements.

"This alliance will enable us to enter our active ingredients into the high value healthcare sector," said Symrise chief executive officer, Dr Gerold Linzbach.

"It is the next logical step in implementing our growth strategy by offering intelligent products which have an added value for consumers."

Cambridge Theranostics chief executive officer, Dr. G. H. Schmidt stated: "Prevention of cardio-vascular complications is a rapidly emerging healthcare sector, currently covered neither by traditional pharmaceutical companies, nor by the food industry.

There is a particular need to maintain healthy blood vessels, because about half the population affected by heart attacks or strokes had no prior symptoms."

Symrise said it would be renaming its cosmetics business unit "Life Essentials" to reflect the new strategy.

The company noted the convergence of health and beauty trends.

"We look at the aspects of beauty and health from a broader point of view," said Achim Daub, Symrise president of scent & care.

"The boundaries between beauty and healthy wellbeing have long since become blurred, as can be seen by the way the wellness movement emerged several years ago...for us, beauty and health are inseparably intertwined."

Both companies were unavailable for additional comment before publication.