Collaboration boost for nutraceuticals development

Collaboration boost for nutraceuticals development

Industrial Research Limited (IRL) has signalled its intent to jointly develop world leading nutraceutical products through the signing of an agreement with Nutriventures Ltd, the major shareholder of Nelson based Nutrizeal.

The options agreement valued at $300,000 will build on the long standing collaboration IRL has had with Nutrizeal and gives Nutriventures the option to license new intellectual property (IP) arising from IRL's Foundation for Research Science and Technology funded High Value Lipids project. In return Nutriventures will provide annual co-funding for the project.

Lipids are part of a large and diverse group of naturally occurring organic compounds that include fatty acids and their derivatives and substances related biosynthetically or functionally to these compounds. The most well-known and publicised bioactive lipids are omega-3 fatty acids derived from fish. Lipids have been increasingly found to play an important role in biological processes.

Nutrizeal manufactures a range of natural products for the food ingredient, nutraceutical and animal health industries. Under the agreement, Nutrizeal will utilise IRL’s capabilities and IP in the supercritical extraction of high-value lipids from locally sourced biomass, to assist in the development of new products.

IRL CEO Shaun Coffey and Nutrizeal Managing Director Richard Daniell signed the agreement on behalf of their respective organisations at IRL.

Richard Daniell says the deal will assist in emulating the successful collaboration between IRL business unit Glycosyn and New Zealand Pharmaceuticals (NZP), in which IRL’s knowledge of carbohydrate chemistry has been successfully married with NZP’s product development expertise to create a strong partnership across the value-chain in pharmaceutical development.

Nutrizeal’s Process Development Manager and chairman of the Nutriventures IRL Development Alliance Dr Andy Herbert stressed the importance of the collaboration to both companies.

“IRL’s expertise in R&D and Nutrizeal’s in manufacturing and product development is a winning combination that can provide huge benefits as a one-stop-shop to our customers here and overseas. Through collaborations such as this we can better add value to New Zealand’s economy through new products made by world-class technology.”

IRL Group Manager of Integrated Bioactive Technologies Dr Owen Catchpole said IRL’s capabilities in the areas of super-critical extraction and lipid chemistry were developed with commercial application in mind.

“We are anticipating that the signing of this agreement will substantially benefit both companies, and lead to the development and commercialisation of a range of new, high-value lipid products for export markets. We hope that it will also place New Zealand on the map as a leader in the application of supercritical extraction technologies for the production of high-value lipids.”

ENDS

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