OptiBiotix subsidiary fuses probiotics and heart health in UK market expansion

19 Jun 2020 --- Heart health needs to be “more accessible, more understandable, more convenient and easier to keep in balance for consumers globally,” Mikkel Hvid-Hansen, Commercial Director of ProBiotix Health, tells NutritionInsight. Tapping into the lucrative probiotics market, the wholly owned subsidiary of OptiBiotix Health has entered into a non-exclusive distribution agreement with Cambridge Commodities Ltd (CCL) for the UK distribution of LPLDL and CholBiomex3, ProBiotix’s heart health-targeting probiotic ingredient and product, respectively. The fusion of probiotics and heart health is a “completely new category in the UK,” he says.

“Both LPLDL and CholBiomeX3 demonstrate an efficacious approach to managing cardiovascular health, [which is] an area of increasing importance for consumers. With CCL’s huge network within the vast UK nutraceutical industry, ProBiotix will help CCL become the first mover within probiotics for heart health,” Hvid-Hansen explains. The agreement will extend Both LPLDL and CholBiomeX3’s application areas to food and beverage, sports nutrition, health and wellbeing, as well as beauty.

CholBiomeX3 uses synergistic mechanisms of action to reduce cholesterol and aid overall cardiovascular health. The new agreement builds on OptiBiotix’s existing relationship with CCL. It also helps ProBiotix expand its geographical reach and increase turnover, but “most importantly, enables ProBiotix to penetrate new business areas like dairy, traditional foods and functional foods – all supporting the megatrend of consumer self-medication with natural and healthy functional food products for improved overall health,” Hvid-Hansen explains.

Marrying heart health with probiotics
CholBiomeX3 combines Monacolin K, an active compound in red yeast rice, and vitamin B3 with Lactobacillus plantarum LPLDL. This is to deliver a tri-factor approach that utilizes synergistic mechanisms of action to reduce cholesterol and aid overall cardiovascular health. Independent clinical studies have shown LPLDL probiotic can reduce key cardiovascular biomarkers, such as total cholesterol (37 percent), LDL “bad” cholesterol (14 percent) and blood pressure (5 percent). 

LPLDL further harnesses the microbiome-liver axis to positively impact the gut microbiome, using a naturally-occurring strain of the bacterial species Lactobacillus plantarum, which demonstrates an exceptional capacity to modulate the metabolism of bile acids. This activity is important for bacterial survival in the intestine’s hostile environment and aids conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

LPLDL was launched at VitaFoods Expo in May 2017 globally and CholBiomeX3 was first available in October 2018 on OptiBiotix Online UK.

NutritionInsight previously spoke with an array of industry experts on how the COVID-19 pandemic is putting a new focus on heart health. Indeed, Hvid-Hansen affirms that within the heart health sector, there is a keen interest from consumers who can monitor heart health biomarkers, such as cholesterol levels and blood pressure, when visiting their family doctors and seeing the numbers improve. 

LPLDL can reduce cardiovascular risk factors and support overall heart wellness.He also notes how the sector has been seeing a clear growing base of consumers who are environmentally conscious and have needs to be met, such as in the expanding vegan demographic. NutritionInsight also reported that the key trends to ensure repeated purchases in the heart health sector move within the environmental sustainability space. Other trends include clean label claims, a move toward natural ingredients, and company openness leading the future of supplements.

“ProBiotix is increasingly interested to learn from consumers and specialists what the future needs are within probiotics for heart health and, subsequently, how we can possibly better serve them with science-based, clinically documented and stable probiotic solutions,” he affirms.

Pipeline dreams
OptiBiotix is keeping busy, with ProBiotix working on new delivery formats for CholBiome, which offers greater convenience for consumers – X3 mini. The brand is also developing a concept for vascular health where it can bind the free calcium in the arteries and thereby avoid atherosclerosis. 

Meanwhile, ProBiotix is soon launching CholBiome BP in the UK online market, which will be positioned for blood pressure reduction. “We have a new clinical trial being published in a few months on this product, which means we are very excited to see the response from the market,” says Hvid-Hansen.

“ProBiotix is dedicated to providing the industry with safe, stable and efficacious products that have a big potential moving forward. This agreement is another step in our low-cost approach to growing revenues by building manufacturing, formulation and distribution partnerships, which provide revenues across the whole value chain in multiple industry sectors,” he concludes.

By Anni Schleicher