Pharma exec seeks to make splash with bioavailability enhanced curcumin
The new company, called Nuvothera, based in Fort Worth, TX, is the brainchild of CEO Art Clapp. Clapp has a background in the pharmaceutical industry and has an MBA to go along with an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and molecular biology.
“I retired from the pharma industry and some of the people I worked with came with me to found this new company,” Clapp told NutraIngredients-USA. “We want to find things that gave similar results to some of the prescription drugs but with safe natural ingredients.”
Clapp said his long experience in drug development with Swiss dermatology specialist Galderma gave him a solid appreciation for pharmacokinetics and how that figures into product development.
“We all come from pharmaceutical backgrounds. We know how to develop these kinds of products and bring them to market,” he said.
Poor bioavailability handicaps most products
Clapp said his travels in Asia opened his eyes to the power of turmeric as a health promoting ingredient. In particular, he said some of the studies he saw on diabetic effects were promising. But he said the curcumin products typically available in the market were disappointing.
“I first starting investigating curcumin about eight years ago. I bought the products on the market but I couldn’t get them to work. I felt as if I had to take at least double the standard dose to get some results,” he said.
“I think turmeric is one of the more amazing natural ingredients with many beneficial compounds within it, many of which are not lipophilic. If you want to get a therapeutic benefit you have to achieve higher blood levels,” Clapp said.
Nuvothera’s product boosts bioavailability via a proprietary encapsulation process, Clapp said. Tiny particles are encapsulated in a carrier to form the product, called Super-Micronized Turmeric Curcumin.
“They are not quite nano-sized, but they are quite small,” Clapp said.
“If you open up a typical curcumin capsule and pour it in a glass of water, you'll see the contents float on top of the water. When you pour our Super-Micronized Turmeric Curcumin on water, it dissolves instantly,” he said.
