Cognis Licenses Further Active Ingredients for Weight Management and Heart Health from InterMed Discovery

Cognis has now licensed two active ingredients supporting weight management from IMD, the first of which was licensed in October 2008. “Both ingredients exhibit very promising in vitro and preclinical in vivo results.

19/03/09 Cognis, a worldwide supplier of innovative specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients, and InterMed Discovery (IMD), an emerging world class natural product lead-discovery company, announced that Cognis has exclusively licensed two further product candidates from IMD: one is a new functional ingredient, which shows promise in the area of weight management and the other provides beneficial effects for heart health.

Using its unique technology platform, IMD can correlate chemical structures with biological activity on a broad, unparalleled scale (“IMD Bioprofiling”). During their ongoing collaboration, Cognis and IMD have utilized this technology platform to identify novel active functional ingredients for specific food applications. The latest breakthrough has led to the discovery of two natural product candidates that are consistent with the global trends for active weight management and a proactive approach to heart health.

Cognis has now licensed two active ingredients supporting weight management from IMD, the first of which was licensed in October 2008. “Both ingredients exhibit very promising in vitro and preclinical in vivo results. Extract development has been finalized and subsequent safety studies are now under way,” says Dr. Sigrid Krämer, project manager for Cognis cooperation with IMD.

The second new ingredient represents a cardiovascular product candidate for heart health, which has shown interesting efficacy results in in vitro tests. Cognis plans to carry out preclinical studies later this year.

Comments Bernhard Müller, Director Global R&D / Technology Cognis Nutrition & Health: “For Cognis, innovations are not just another growth driver, but a crucial part of our corporate strategy focusing on wellness and sustainability. Ensuring a continuous stream of innovations is therefore among our top priorities. By licensing these two new active ingredients, we are strengthening our product portfolio in the important growth market of ingredients for the functional foods and dietary supplements industries.”

Says Dr. Thomas Henkel, Managing Director of InterMed Discovery: “The discovery of these new ingredients proves the strength of IMD’s food ingredient pipeline as well as the power of our technology platform in generating a sustainable stream of innovative product candidates in a short period of time. Working with Cognis allows our ideas to be developed into valuable innovative and proprietary active ingredients for specific applications through to market-readiness. At the moment, there are more ingredients at the exploratory stage.” Bernard Becker, also Managing Director of InterMed Discovery, adds: “This success further strengthens our confidence in our business model by adding to the continuous growth of our company.”

Under the terms of a licensing agreement, Cognis will take the lead in the product development process and will be responsible for marketing any resulting products. In return, InterMed Discovery will receive an upfront payment and royalties.

In March 2008, both companies announced a strategic cooperation. Under this agreement, Cognis can use InterMed Discovery’s natural product data base – the world’s largest of its kind – and has exclusive access to selected potential active ingredients for specific applications in functional foods and dietary supplements.