OptiBiotix signs deal with Seed Health to get products into US market

Life sciences business OptiBiotix Health has entered into a non-exclusive agreement with Seed Health to produce, promote, market, and commercialise products containing ‘LP-LDL’ in the US, it announced on Tuesday.

The AIM-traded firm had previously announced on 1 May that it was in commercial discussions with Seed in response to media reports on the launch of its LP-LDL product in America.

Its board confirmed that Tuesday’s announcement was a result of the successful conclusion of those discussions.

OptiBiotix said Seed was co-founded and is led by Raja Dhir and Ara Katz to pioneer the application of microbiome science to improve human and planetary health.

In collaboration with leading microbiome scientists and a global network of partners and experts in biofermentation, stabilisation and testing, Seed claims to have developed a new standard for a pipeline of effective, scientifically-validated probiotics that target the human microbiome.

The agreement was described as a “strategic step” by OptiBiotix to access the US probiotic supplement market.

It said the US is one of the largest and fastest growing probiotic markets in the world, with supplements alone accounting for sales of $2.06bn sales, with a projected 55% growth to $3.3bn by 2021.

LP-LDL would be commercialised by Seed in an “innovative product concept” which combined multiple strains of different probiotics, selected as a result of strong clinical trial data.

OptiBiotix said its LP-LDL strain had published human data demonstrating statistical and clinical significant reductions in cholesterol and blood pressure, won best scientific abstracts at both ProBiota 2017 and ProBiota 2018, and was finalist as probiotic of the year at Vitafoods 2018.

“We are pleased to announce this agreement with SeedTM which extends the sale of LP-LDL into the US, the world's largest and fastest growing probiotic market,” said OptiBiotix CEO Stephen O'Hara.

“We chose Seed due to our shared vision of commercialising products with strong scientific and clinical data, their innovative product concept, and their ability to access the large US consumer goods market.

“We are pleased that our strong science, successful human studies and international awards at major scientific conferences has attracted international interest in our products leading to continued regular deal flow as we build multiple revenue streams from partners across the world.”