Functional- and medical food specialist Provexis revealed the news in its preliminary results for the year ending March 31 2011, where the plc. revealed losses attributable to owners of the parent of £1.986m.
Provexis chief executive Stephen Moon said the acquisition, which is due to be completed on June 24, would boost Provexis’ near-term revenue, and told FoodManufacture.co.uk: “We’ve been looking at functional foods in general, and sports nutrition is a market that continues to grow. SiS is one of the most higly regarded businesses in this sector in the UK.”
Leatherhead Food Research said late last year that the UK market for sports nutrition was worth around £250m, and Moon said that when supplements, drinks and food were factored in it was worth over £300m.
Sports nutrition push
Moon said that Windsor-based Provexis would bring considerable scientific and regulatory expertise to the SiS business – which was founded by a cyclist/sports scientist and has significant credibility with elite ahthletes – and would look to broaden its mainstream appeal.
In June 2010 Provexis entered an alliance agreement with DSM Nutritional Products to commercialise its tomato-based heart health ingredient Fruitflow, which works by ‘smoothing’ blood platelets and preventing aggregation.
Asked when the first Fruitflow products could appear in obvious application areas such as juice-based drinks, yogurts and other dairy products, Moon said was DSM was "doing a great job", with supply chain and manufacturing arrangements for a cost-effective syrup version of the ingredient finalised.
“I know they [DSM] have had fruitful discussions with both natonal brandowners and global players, so watch this space,” he said.
Provexis also reported that “good progress” had been made in optimising a powder version of Fruitflow suitable for use in tablets and capsules, and said the format would be commercially available in late summer.
Crohn's disease trials
The company said that data gathered from the first patients to complete 12 months treatment using its NSP#3G plantain extract, for medical food use in the treatment of Crohn's disease, showed no safety concerns, and said it intended to roll-out further trials in four additional centres.
Provexis said its Liverpool-based research team were continuing research into use of NSP#3G extracts for addressing hospital 'super bug' C.difficile and antibiotic-associated diarrhoea.
A first human trial using a isothiocyanate extract to treat cardiovascular inflammation is also underway, with a second trial due to start later in the year, and a third and final trial to yield regulatory support for product launches scheduled in 2012.
A recent agreement will also see Provexis use DSM's intellectual property to develop a "cost effective" product aimed at promoting healthy glucose levels, conduct clinical trials and gain regulatory clearances, with the partners collaborating on commercialisation arrangements prior to any launch.