Flowens, developed for use in nutritional supplements and functional foods, is said to alleviate such LUTS symptoms as overactive bladder and underactive bladder without the oft-associated sexual side effects. While cranberry extracts are typically formulated to target women with urinary tract infection symptoms, research suggests that 26% of men in their 40s display LUTS that are moderate to severe, with this figure rising to 33% for men in their 60s and 50% for men in their 80s.
“It is a huge category,” Dan Souza, senior director of sales and marketing at Naturex, told NutraIngredients-USA. “LUTS affect men as young as 40 years old. It is not a question of if you will have issues, it is a question of when.”
In a recent clinical trial, patients aged 45 to 70 with LUTS who took Flowens experienced strong improvements in the key prostrate health marker – the International Prostrate Symptom Score (IPSS) – compared with a placebo. Dosage increases correlated with improvements in the IPSS, with a 250mg daily dose of Flowens providing a 25% improvement and a 500mg daily dose offering a 44% improvement.
The results are undergoing a review by subject matter experts and will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal this quarter. NutraIngredients-USA hasn’t yet seen the data.
Though Souza wouldn’t specify what the active ingredients are in the extract, he confirmed that proanthocyanidins (PACs) are not considered the active ingredient, thus the product is not standardized to PACs. Pricing on a per-dose basis, Flowens is competitive with existing botanicals for men’s LUTS.
“Historically, strong clinical results have driven sales for our condition-specific ingredients. That said, we are focusing less on the fact that it is cranberry and more on the fact that it is a new ingredient shown to improve symptoms in a major nutritional supplement market category,” Souza added.
Naturex will be promoting the ingredient during next week's Vitafoods Europe conference in Geneva, Switzerland.