Dispatches from SupplySide West 2013
MicroPharma ready to launch microbiome supplements direct to healthcare practitioners
Ryan Jones, CEO of MicroPharma, told us: “MicroPharma is one of six commercial companies in the world that is actually creating microbiome commercial products and taking advantage of this half a billion dollars-worth of research.”
The Montreal-based company is looking at the gene population and the organism population in normal, healthy subjects, and comparing this with populations in different disease states – obesity, type-2 diabetes, high cholesterol, IBD, IBS – to look for genetic differences.
Specifically MicroPharma focuses on BSH – bile salt hydrolase – which is a gene that produces a protein called bile salt hydrolase, explained Jones, which works in the gut through bile metabolism – a natural metabolic process that has downstream effects on LDL cholesterol, absorption of fat soluble vitamins, and so on.
“Our company is focused at the intersection of the microbiome and bile metabolism,” he added.
Novel tools & ‘gold standard, top of quality’ supplements
The company has expanded the range of tools available to it to map the microbiome, and has developed an electromechanical device – a pill – that takes multi samples of the gut.
“We found that not only was the science difficult to explain to mass market, but the messages were difficult as well. So we have developed a new line of products that we’re promoting in the United States called Microbiome Plus,” said Jones.
“It’s providing gold standard, top of quality, and full daily doses of dietary supplements. Our bone product, for example, provides a full daily dose of high quality calcium and vitamin D3, as well as the BSH gene to the microbiome, which we’ve shown in two studies of 150 people to increase circulating 25(OH)D by 25% regardless of changes in UV and diet.”
The company is launching three products direct to healthcare practitioners in the next couple of weeks.
The company already has a commercial product available throughout North America based on its Lactobacillus reuteri NCIMB 30242 bacteria for cholesterol reduction. Data from published trials indicates that supplementation with L. reuteri NCIMB 30242 may reduce cholesterol levels by almost 12%.
