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(Alliance News) - OptiBiotix Health PLC on Thursday said it has signed an agreement with an undisclosed US partner to develop its LPLDL strain of bacteria as a pharmaceutical drug product.
Shares in OptiBiotix were down 2.1% at 76.38 pence shortly before mid day.
OptiBiotix did not disclose the value of the deal, but said it "included a number of six figure payments to be made by the US partner at signing and at subsequent milestones with an additional six figure sum on product launch, plus royalties on future product sales".
The manufacture of cholesterol-reducing bacteria strain LPLDL to pharmaceutical drug standards falls to OptiBiotix, which has been working with its manufacturing partner. OptiBiotix expects to have completed the process for making a pharmaceutical grade version of LPLDL by the end of July 2019 and expects certification "shortly afterwards".
This certification will trigger a second milestone payment from the US partner.
The company said revenue increased in early 2019 and is forecast to continue into the second half of the year. Further, a "large corporate partner" is expecting to launch products in the first quarter of 2020, which is further set to boost revenue.
OptiBiotix is also planning to launch its "own label product with a potential major retailer in early 2020" and there are plans for direct-to-consumer online sales in the works as the company is in talks with "an established online consumer business".
The company in addition announced results of human studies for its SlimBiome ingredient and SlimBiome Medical product assessing the effect of SlimBiome on glycaemic index and glycaemic response, which it described as "indicators of whether a food raises blood glucose levels quickly, or slowly".
"The results show both SlimBiome and SlimBiome Medical have a low GI and a low GR. The results also suggest that SlimBiome when taken with a high GI sugar may mitigate the effect of the addition of a high GI sugar," said OptiBiotix.
The company also said study of its SweetBiotix sweetener found that it improved "the number and activity of bacterial species typically associated with good gut health when compared to current natural sweeteners". A manufacturing scale-up of SweetBiotix is underway.
OptiBiotix Chief Executive Stephen O'Hara said: "With current products winning awards for their science and product innovation and growing deal flow across international markets, the company is continuing to grow revenue streams across a broad deal pipeline. If most of these partners deliver on their forecasts, revenues will continue to grow in the months and years ahead."
