SourceOne gets broad U.S. patent for colloidal delivery system

07-Oct-2012 - Last updated on 17-Oct-2023 at 10:52 GMT

Improving efficacy via better delivery is an old story, starting with the first hunter who thought to affix his sharp stone to the end of a stick. The latest chapter, written by SourceOne Global Partners with its featured VESIsorb technology, promises to offer some game-changing benefits.

Source One announced recently a new U.S. patent has been granted for the technology, boosting its IP portfolio. The new patent, termed by the company as an umbrella patent, covers the delivery system when used with a broad range of natural product ingredients such as Co Q10, QH Ubiquinol, Omega-3s, vitamin D-3, resveratrol, curcumin and tocotrienols among others.

The VESIsorb technology is described as a self-assembling colloidal droplet delivery system, one that offers significant formulation and absorption benefits.

“The colloidal droplets are a significant improvement over micelles and liposomes. With micelles you have a water core and oil droplets on the outside and there’s very little you can load into a micelle. With a colloidal droplet we have an oil core and we can load a lot of omega-3s or CoQ10 or QH ubiquinol within that core,” Jesse Lopez, founder and CEO of SourceOne told NutraIngredients-USA.

“We can take poorly soluble ingredients, such as curcumin and resveratrol, and make them water soluble,” he said.

Positive study results

Lopez said Source One has had a number of very positive trials with the technology. One pilot pharmacokinetic study in humans compared an QH ubiquinol (SourceOne’s CoQsource QH) on its own and with the VESIsorb technology. The colloidal delivery system demonstrated a 696% increase in peak blood levels of ubiquinol, according to the company. The relative bioavailability using an area under the curve measurement was increased by 485%.

Another similar pilot study compared the delivery system’s effectiveness with fish oil, using in this case SourceOne’s Omega Choice 90 concentrated EPA omega-3 ingredient. The results here were similarly dramatic according to the company: 567% increase in peak blood levels of EPA and a bioavailability increase of 487%.

Long term development project

“We already had multiple U.S. patents. We have over 40 patents already awarded or pending in close to 20 different countries. Some of the patents are specific to pharmaceutical applications or cosmetic topical applications,” he said.

“We have formulations that involve fish oil, that involve krill and certainly involve the algal forms of omega-3s. I think it’s going to be a dramatic increase in the number of patented formulations that we can bring to our brand partners,” Lopez said.

“We have already had numerous companies wanting to immediately go into to pharmacokinetic testing of formulations that they feel confident the VESIsorb system will improve the absorption and bioavailability of and that they know that there is an existing need in the marketplace. It is an unmet need and we could very quickly provide a solution that to date as not been provided in the global marketplace,” Lopez said.

In addition to the enthusiasm, the technology has already yielded new business, Lopez said.

“We have recently signed some agreements that we will be sharing in the coming weeks in which not only have we established partnerships for the technology platform but have agreed to certain co-funding of studies to further validate additional science-based natural ingredients. That would allow us to not only to have the patented delivery system but the supporting science to validate the improvement that we believe the delivery system offers,” he said.

Helping to bring technologies to market

SourceOne specializes in developing technology partnerships, and has worked with Vesifact, the developer of the VESIsorb technology, for about five years, Lopez said. Vesifact is a life science and drug delivery company based in Baar, Switzerland and is a spin-off of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology.

“Most of what we’ve tried to do is to align our marketing expertise with technology partners so that when we are able to establish a technology partnership, our role is to commercially develop the technology, build awareness, educate consumers and build the brand message,” Lopez said.

“Our company can help researchers and technology companies bring their products to market,” he said.