NattoPharma to introduce first full-spectrum vitamin K2

22 Sep 2017 --- NattoPharma is set to launch MenaQ7 Full Spectrum K2. This latest innovation is the result of a proprietary technological breakthrough, creating a vitamin K2 that provides menaquinones (MK) 6, 7, 8 and 9, a range of isomers vital for cardiovascular health, the company reports.

“NattoPharma has driven the creation of the vitamin K2 market, sponsoring the important research validating the importance of K2 for human health, and this work has shaped the MenaQ7 brand,” says NattoPharma Chief Medical Officer Dr. Hogne Vik.

“The important epidemiological studies that led us to our ground-breaking human clinical research used fermented cheese as the source of vitamin K2, which led us to create MenaQ7 Full Spectrum,” Vik adds.

According to researchers closely linked to these epidemiological studies: “Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that plays and unequivocal role in the activation of Gla-proteins. Although all K-vitamins have the same function, they differ in bioavailability and bioactivity.”

“The Rotterdam and Prospect studies have shown that food-derived vitamin K (such as from cheeses) improves long-term cardiovascular health outcomes because it more specifically delivers the long-chain menaquinones MK-6, 7, 8 and 9,” they add.

“While fermented cheeses are the best dietary source of menaquinones in the West, most will not be able to consume enough to obtain optimal amounts of Vitamin K2, nor is cheese a practical source for extracting the menaquinones,” adds Dr. Vik. “To that end, NattoPharma has once again broken the mold and offers to the market a raw material that delivers the range of menaquinones found in foods.”

The first and only vitamin K2 to deliver to deliver a gamut of menaquinone isomers, MenaQ7 Full Spectrum is naturally fermented using chickpea protein, offering an all-trans vitamin K2 that is free from gluten, soy and all-known allergens, and is suitable for vegans and vegetarians. MenaQ7 Full Spectrum provides the vital menaquinone isomers MK-6, 7, 8 and 9 for optimal and maximal delivery of vitamin K2 with respect to absorption, half-life and biological activity.

“NattoPharma has once again created a raw material that speaks directly the natural dietary supplement consumer, who is drawn to comprehensive nutritional sources,” says Daniel Rosenbaum, NattoPharma CEO. “We welcome the opportunity to meet with companies at this year’s SupplySide West to officially launch this market-changing innovation.”

MenaQ7 Full Spectrum Vitamin K2 will be launched at NattoPharma’s SupplySide West booth P115.

In an earlier interview with NutritionInsight, Eric Anderson, Senior Vice President of Global Marketing and Business Development at NattoPharma, underlined the company’s commitment to supporting research into the benefits of vitamin K.

“When we look at vitamin K2 as menaquinone-7, we believe this is everything that is good about the natural products industry,” Anderson says. “Researchers discovered K2, and NattoPharma supported its substantiation. MenaQ7 was proven in healthy populations, and today NattoPharma is involved in two clinical trials with patients: a study of patients with coronary calcification; and a second study with patients who have aortic calcification.”

“We’ve invested tens of millions of euros proving, with universities and independent researchers, that populations that eat a lot of a certain food with this micronutrient, which can also be taken as a supplement, are getting these health benefits,” Anderson says.

“We’re only supplying the active, menaquinone/vitamin K2; these studies are being paid for by traditional medical doctors who are treating diseased patients and the only active is a vitamin. And that’s what it really should be about: You have science, science leads to discovery, which in turn leads to an investment into proving that [an active] works as a dietary supplement,” Anderson says.

References:
1 Geleijnse JM, Vermeer C, Grobbee DE, et al. Dietary intake of menaquinone is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease: the Rotterdam Study. J Nutr. 2004;134:3100-5.
2 Beulens JW, Bots ML, Atsma F, et al. High dietary menaquinone intake is associated with reduced coronary calcification. Atherosclerosis. 2009;203:489-93.
3 Gast GC, de Roos NM, Sluijs I, et al. A high menaquinone intake reduces the incidence of coronary heart disease. Nutr Metab Cardiovasc Dis. 2009;19:504-10.

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