The company said animal model studies from the University of Granada had demonstrated a combination of two strains - Lactobacillus reuteri isolated from cow milk and a Bifidobacterium breve from human milk - may regulate cholesterol levels and reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease.
The patent was the culmination of the three-year POSTBIO project founded in 2011 and funded by the Innovation and Development Agency of Andalusia (IDEA). The project amounted to a total investment of €2.7m.
The company said its patent demonstrated its strategy of moving “away from classic applications and opting for new, unexplored or little-explored applications”.
“Although there were earlier references to the hypercholesterolemia activity of certain Probiotic strains, Biosearch Life has gone deeper into the knowledge of the bacterial components and mechanisms implicated in this activity,” the company said in its announcement.
The patent sees Biosearch Life joining fellow Spanish company AB-Biotics, which was granted a composition patent linking its Lactobacillus plantarum blend with cholesterol reduction in 2013. Last year DuPont Nutrition and Health teamed with the company on the venture.
The POSTBIO project also saw Biosearch Life securing a patent for “probiotic bacteria comprising metals, metal nanoparticles and uses thereof” back in 2013.
Biosearch Life products fall under three brand names: Eupoly for omega-3, Hereditum for probiotics and Exxentia for vegetable extracts.