New nutra player set to exploit Israel biotech potential

22-Jan-2010 - Last updated on 22-Jan-2010 at 14:08 GMT

The growing level of innovative Israeli incubator projects focused on nutritional product development is behind a seasoned industry player’s decision to establish a consultancy aimed at taking these start-ups to the next level.

Brenner pharma/food BD has recently been set up by the former vice president of marketing and business at Israeli ingredients supplier Solbar Industries, Gary Brenner.

He told NutraIngredients.com that it has been a dream of his for several years to tap into the hotbed for R&D biotechnology and natural botanical extract development that Israel has become.

According to Brenner, while several projects focused on active ingredients, functional food and nutrition beverage products have succeeded in attracting investors, in order to create a viable business model, they require expertise in developing product profiles, taking products to the market and dealing with the existing regulatory challenges.

This is where his new consultancy steps in, he said. Brenner clamis his 18 years of business development work with Solbar and experience of the EU health claims process will pay dividends in supporting these start ups in that respect.

One objective of his firm, he continued, will be to identify projects that have ‘out of the box’ thinking, are committed to meeting the highest science and rigorous legislative standards, and that have the business potential to succeed globally.

For confidentiality reasons, Brenner said he was not able to disclose a huge amount of detail about the two Israeli start-ups the company is currently involved in, but he revealed that one is focused on developing oncological and post-partum liquid medical foods, with clinical work underway to prove their safety and efficacy.

“The other start-up is engaged in innovative work in the area of cell culture development for polyphenols to improve their bioavailability and is also looking at a method to standardize the amount of active ingredients in botanicals,” he added.

Brenner said that his new consultancy is essentially going to focus on supporting Israeli bioscience companies but that, currently, it is working with a GMP certified Chinese biotech player in terms of marketing its 97 per cent purity REB A Stevia product in Europe.

“The only European markets where REB A Stevia is permitted currently as a sweetener are Switzerland and France, and so for the moment, they are the markets we are concentrating on.”

He said that the Chinese firm is currently supplying the sweetener to branded beverage makers in the US.

Brenner stressed that his leave taking of Solbar was extremely amicable and that his consultancy expects to collaborate with the soy protein isolate manufacturer in the near future.