Oxford Nutrascience in chewitab deal with healthcare firm DCC

Oxford Nutrascience develops chewy confectionary, tablets and liquid suspensions for medicines and vitamin suppliments in applications, it claims, are easily consumed by the children and the elderly.

Chief executive of the company, Nigel Theobald, told NutraIngredients.com that as DCC is a contract manufacturer for most of the major UK dietary supplement companies, it will be using Chewitab technology with existing brands, thereby "showcasing our technology for the UK market."​

"This is a great deal for us,” ​he added.

Theobald also disclosed that a number of global healthcare companies – the names of which cannot currently be disclosed – are also expressing an interest in the Chewitab technology.

The chief executive believes that there is great potential for the product, quoting a study by Oxford Nutrascience of 4,500 adults that found that 30 per cent of people do not like or find it difficult to swallow pills even though pills where found to make up over 90 per cent of products sold as medicines.

“This shows us we have a large group of people who would take alternative formats provided they were appealing. Our Chewitab technology provides the means to overcome the taste difficulties in making chewable tablets so we have a huge target market to go for,” ​Theobald commented.

Chewitab technology​

Chewitab is Oxford Nutrascience's proprietary technology used in chewable tablets.

The company said that its Chewitab technology protects sensitive ingredients from degradation, so that they can easily be incorporated into soft chews. The product is cooked at lower temperatures and some fats are also replaced with fibres. It is this ratio that is protected by the patent.

Nutrascience teamed up with Ocean Nutrition Canada earlier this month with an agreement to develop omega-3 chews to supply the dietary supplements sector.