Swedish probiotics firm BioGaia has signed an agreement with a small Italian company for the sale of its Reuteri tablets on the Italian market.
The five-year agreement gives the small Italian firm Nóos the exclusive right to sell BioGaia's tablets through Italian pharmacies and hospitals.
The Italian probiotics market is one of the largest in the world, and physicians regularly prescribe probiotics together with medications such as antibiotics to alleviate gastrointestinal side effects, according to the firm.
Nóos currently sells the immunostimulatory products Glucanet and Glucanoos in Italy, while BioGaia has established distribution agreements for its Reuteri tablets in Japan, the USA, Korea, South Africa and the Nordic countries, and recently Australia.
"Nóos is a relatively small company, but we have confidence in their ability to penetrate the Italian market for probiotic products and eventually reach a substantial market share," said BioGaia's managing director Peter Rothschild.