American product launch for listed life sciences business

York-based life sciences company Optibiotix Health has launched its product in the North American market.

It has granted Agropur Inc an exclusive license to manufacture, supply and distribute OptiBiotix’s SlimBiome® weight management technology in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Agropur is a wholly owned subsidiary of Agropur Cooperative, which is a North American dairy industry leader founded in 1938.

With 8,800 employees and sales of US$5.5bn in 2019, Agropur processes more than 14nb lbs of milk per year at its 38 plants across North America.

Mike Homewood, vice president of Agropur Custom Solutions, said: “We are proud of our agreement and partnership with OptiBiotix and the exclusive opportunity to bring SlimBiome® to the North American food and nutrition industries.

“This ingredient solution for weight management fits into Agropur’s goal to provide innovative, forward-thinking products to our customers.”

Optibiotix develops compounds to tackle obesity, high cholesterol, diabetes and skin care.

Dr Fred Narbel, managing director of OptiBiotix’s prebiotics division, said: “We are very pleased with the progress Agropur has made since the announcement of our partnership at the end of June 2019.

“Over a rather short period of time, Agropur has qualified its manufacturing process and is now able to produce SlimBiome® in the USA and supply the ingredient to North American B2B customers.

“This is a key strategic step In OptiBiotix’s commercial development as it grants the company access to the US weight management market which was estimated to be worth US$72 billion in 2019.”