Eevia Health Oy, which specialises in organically certified plant extracts, expect to show off upgrades such as equipment, machines, and technology, adding additional green-chemistry production credentials to its facility in Kauhajoki, Finland.
“Some of the improvements are radical,” explains CEO and Founder Stein Ulve. “For instance, earlier, the residence time (the time the extracted liquid has to be in the process step) for extraction liquids in one process step was four hours, whiles now this step only takes a few seconds. This greatly benefits quality.”
“We are very pleased to have completed this factory-upgrade. It puts us as a competitive company for high quality, branded ingredients in a €500bn global nutraceutical ingredients market.”
Other upgrades include improvements to functionality, with the aim of maintaining quality in the extraction process of complex compounds from natural plant material.
Polyphenolic extract focus
As Ulve adds, the investment, which is 100% equity-financed by Eevia Health’s owners, will especially benefit its manufacturing of polyphenolic extracts from arctic bilberries and lingonberries, as well as elderberries.
The firm focuses on such organic botanicals as bilberry and chaga, producing extracts in powder form for inclusion in hard-gels, tablets and sachets, and serums and creams amongst others.
Other extracts include those from lingonberry, considered rich in polyphenolic compounds, and known for anti-oxidative, cytoprotective, and anti-inflammatory effects.
Eevia Health Oy also make available a pine bark extract that is said to have anti-inflammatory effects as well as aid in improving blood pressure. Pine bark may also protect against oxidative damage in blood vessels.
The firm are quick to point out its location near the harvest areas of its raw materials, where Eevia Health claims to offer the shortest value chain in the industry,
Added to a focus on sustainability and traceability and products with an environmentally friendly carbon footprint, the firm now looks to continue its commitment to the environment with this facility upgrade.
Eevia Health and AMD
The firm received good news las month as it was awarded the Seal of Excellence, by the EU Commission for a project proposal Retinari that was filed to the Horizon 2020 EIC Accelerator Pilot funding scheme.
Retinari is the firm’s polyphenol extract, created to address Age-Related Macular Degeneration (AMD), over the last three years. Eevia Health Oy is the owner of the Retinari and the holder of the product IPR.
The Seal of Excellence is a quality label for first-class innovative ideas worthy of funding that signifies the proposal has passed all Horizon 2020 assessment thresholds for the three award criteria (excellence, impact, quality and efficiency of implementation).
In the firm’s 2019 quarterly report to shareholders in February 2020, management stated should the grant-application to Horizon 2020 for Retinari be accepted, Eevia Health would have the option to ‘redirect the strategy and business development towards capitalising of an unique, proprietary product with large market potential.’
‘The critical path for the Go to Market timeline of Retinari is dependent on the execution of a safety study compliant with FDA and EFSA regulations,’ they added.