The article 13.5 claim reads: “V0137, in association with physical and intellectual training, helps to slow the age-related cognitive decline in domains such as memory and executive function.”
Executive function is an umbrella term referring to the management of cognitive processes like working memory, reasoning, flexibility and problem solving.
The company told us V0137 was a "novel omega-3-based product", but declined to give more information on the product it said it was "still studying".
A spokesperson for the company said: "We are waiting for the European Food Safety Authority’s answers and won’t be able to answer your questions before their response."
According to the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) register of questions, the application will be processed within the legal deadline for such dossiers, meaning EFSA has five months to complete its evaluation once the application is considered complete.
Article 13.5 nutrition and health claims refer to newly developed scientific evidence and/or for which protection of proprietary data is requested.
To date EFSA has received 48 applications for article 13.5 claims, 13 of which were withdrawn. So far 27 scientific opinions have been adopted.
Pierre Fabre Medicament, headquartered in the city of Castres in the south-west of France, considers itself the third largest French pharmaceutical group.
It reached sales of over €2bn in 2013, 56% of which came from international revenues.