UAS has acquired all of the assets associated with the Lactobacillus reuteri NCIMB 30242 (LRC) strain including the patents, trademarks, clinical documentation and associated research, a company spokesman told NutraIngredients-USA. LRC is protected by two families of registered patents. The LRC strain has been shown to support healthy cholesterol levels and maintain heart health.
“We are extremely proud to have acquired this superb intellectual property from Micropharma as it furthers our company mission of being the leader in providing probiotic-based health solutions worldwide and for growing the condition-specific health benefits associated with these bacteria,” said Kevin Mehring, President and CEO of UAS Labs.
Science
Dr Gregory Leyer, CSO for UAS Lab, said Micropharma has “set the industry standard for taking a probiotic strain through the discovery and commercialization process”. Indeed, the Montreal-based company has published safety data for the ingredient in Food and Chemical Toxicology (2012, Vol. 50, pp. 2216-2223) and Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology (2012, Vol. 63, pp. 313-320), and had a letter of no objection from the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) for the GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status of the strain for use in food and beverages up to a dose of 10 billion CFUs (colony forming units) per serving.
In addition, Micropharma has systematically built the science to support its product, with results from double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized human trials being published in prestigious journals such as the British Journal of Nutrition (2012, Vol. 107, pp. 1505-1513) and the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2012, Vol. 66, pp. 1234-1241).
The BJN paper reported that a yogurt formulation containing the company’s microencapsulated bile salt hydrolase (BSH)-active L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 could reduce LDL cholesterol by about 9% and total cholesterol by about 5% over six weeks. The second study was a nine week intervention, which found that L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 capsules could reduce LDL and total cholesterol by 11.6% and 9.1%, respectively, in people with elevated cholesterol levels.
Micropharma is led by identical twins Ryan and Mitchell Jones, who are the company’s CEO and CSO, respectively.
Ryan Jones said he was “excited to witness the next stage” in the company’s development that will be offered by the UAS deal. “UAS Labs and its experienced management team are perfectly positioned to advance not only the commercial success but also the scientific documentation around the LRC strain and the Cardioviva formulations,” he said.
Cardioviva
The deal also includes the Cardioviva brand, which is currently available in major retailers such as Walgreens and Vitamin Shoppe in the US. The UAS spokesperson told us: “It is our intention to expand the market globally for this condition specific probiotic.”
Lakeview Equity Partners, LLC the majority owner of UAS Labs provided funding to complete this acquisition and the recently completed a $4 million state-of-the-art upgrade to their probiotic focused manufacturing facility in central Wisconsin.