Optibiotix Health at forefront of research to help tackle obesity

The York-based firm is talking to global food producers about a yoghurt that speeds up metabolism, reduces the calorie uptake from food and makes people feel full.

The launch comes at a time when the Government is warning that obesity has become the new smoking in terms of health dangers. Data suggests that a quarter of British adults and a fifth of British children are now classified as obese.

OptiBiotix CEO Stephen O’Hara said the group is working on a weight management formulation that has been devised by Sheffield University.

In January the firm entered into a 50/50 joint venture with NIZO Food Research to make fruit yoghurts that can fight weight gain in three ways.

“If you take satiation, or feeling full, you can reduce energy gain by 10 per cent over a year. You can speed up the metabolism by three to four per cent over a year and we can change the microbes in your gut so the body extracts less calories from food. This can reduce energy harvest by about 10 per cent,” said Mr O’Hara.

“We don’t know yet how they will act together.”

The yoghurts will be launched in Japan, Korea and Australia over the new few months and the group is now in discussions with yoghurt manufacturers and distributors.

“They range from global companies to national and regional players,” said Mr O’Hara.

The next step is to launch the weight management formulation in capsules, cereal bars and OptiBiotix has also been working with Sheffield University on bread-based and corn-based snacks.

“In the diet world, people have created products that have reduced fat and sugar, using lower calorie ingredients,” said Mr O’Hara.

“We are creating a totally new product that actively works to reduce weight. It can make you feel fuller for longer, change your metabolism and change how you harvest energy.

“All the compounds are safe ingredients that have been used in food stuffs in the past.”

OptiBiotix has developed a screening and selection platform to identify three natural and safe human bacteria (Lactobacilli) which have been shown to reduce cholesterol in laboratory studies by between 72 and 81 per cent. High cholesterol is an established risk factor for coronary heart disease.

The pre-clinical studies assessed each strain’s manufacturability, gastro-intestinal robustness and activity against bile salts.

OptiBiotix said data from the pre-clinical studies provided information which will be used to reduce the cost, time scale and development risk of future products.

The bacterial strains are undergoing further testing to identify the best strain to create a supplement.

The supplements will be taken once a day to reduce cholesterol in people with high cholesterol levels who are unable to take prescription statins due to side affects or are below the risk threshold, which stands at 20 per cent risk of cardiovascular disease within 10 years.

OptiBiotix is also looking at ways to create new sugars by changing the structure of sugar to create healthy, artificial sweeteners that have no calories.

Last week OptiBiotix, which floated on AIM last August, announced that it has more than halved its pre-tax losses. ​

The group, which won’t make any sales until its products get developed, said its pre-tax loss reduced from £2.2m to £850,000 in the six months to November 30.