The product will use Unigen's patent-pending compound that the company claims has been clinically proven to aid the body's natural processes in achieving weight reduction.
Santé Naturelle, headquartered in Quebec, Canada, will feature Unigen's DiAfin ingredient in Metabolix, its new, natural product that aids the body's metabolism enouraging weight loss and helping users to maintain a healthy weight.
"Based on our recent successful human clinical trial, we know that Metabolix has the potential to be a blockbuster product that will help many Canadians regain a sense of health and wellbeing," said Line Daigneault, buying director for Santé Naturelle.
The human clinical trial carried out on the supplement on behalf of Santé Naturelle involved 60 participants and measured weight reduction by body mass, according to Regan Miles, Unigen's executive vice president.
"After taking 250mg of Metabolix each day for 90 days, average weight loss was significant," he said. "We are excited to provide Santé Naturelle with our scientific support and our high-potency compound delivers health benefits not easily obtained in today's foods."
Metabolix is now being marketed in Quebec in a number of pharmacies, mass merchandise outlets and food stores.
Unigen describes DiAfin as a "non-stimulant botanical weight loss product" created from a blend of standardized Free-B-Ring flavonoids and flavans from two plant extracts that affect fructose metabolism. The product is said to address the overloading of fructose in the Western diet along with chronic inflammation, both, according to the company, are common problems in obesity and diabetes.
Scientists at the IFT meeting in July, though, said there was no credible evidence to 'single out' high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) as a unique contributor to obesity.
The Center for Food and Nutrition Policy (CFNP) at Virginia Tech said that there is no reason to believe that humans absorb or metabolise HFCS any differently than sucrose.
Whatever the case, clinical proof that weight loss products work is becoming increasingly important as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) tries to make consumers more and more aware of false weight-loss advertising campaigns.
Earlier this month the FTC launched "Operation Big fat Lie", which, among other things, will attempt to stop bogus claims by dietary supplement manufacturers.
"Operation Big Fat Lie" consists of three programs, including enforcement, consumer education, and direct communication with newspapers and magazines to encourage their support in refusing bogus advertisements for weight loss products.
"False and misleading advertisements are about as credible as a note from the tooth fairy," said Deborah Platt Majoras, chairman of the FTC. "By working with media outlets to reject false ads and educating consumers to make informed choices, the FTC hopes to keep this national obesity epidemic from getting worse."
To prove that it means business, the FTC kicked off the program by filing complaints against six companies that allegedly used at least one of the seven weight-loss claims it had identified as not scientifically feasible in its "Red Flag" education campaign, launched last December.
These complaints include adverts placed in national newspapers and magazines including Cosmopolitan, Woman's Own and Dallas Morning News. The supplements mentioned include one product containing Ayurvedic herbs and three others made of green tea extract (Camellia sinensis) and umbrella arum root (Amorphophallus konjac).
In order to attract consumer attention to the campaign, the FTC has set up a web site that appears to advertise a new pill promising to help consumers "Lose up to 10 pounds per week - with no sweat, no starvation!". In fact, the site is a link to a FTC warning about bogus products.
In response to this action, Michael McGuffin, president of the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) noted: "Over the past few years, the AHPA has worked closely with the FTC to develop advertising guidelines for weight-loss products. But only FTC has the authority to enforce the law, and these ongoing efforts protect both consumers and responsible herbal product manufacturers who do have useful products to offer."