Kappa Bioscience’s vitamin K combines with Optibiotix probiotic in vascular health deal

The agreement, which covers 27 European countries but also includes Russia and Singapore, looks to combine LPLDL's cholesterol and blood pressure-reducing abilities with Kappa's vitamin K2 product.

“This broadens the use of LPLDL beyond cholesterol reduction and creates new market opportunities in the field of cardiovascular health,” said ​Dr Luis Gosalbez, OptiBiotix’s business development director.

“The result is a new product for vascular health, a segment of cardiovascular care where very few products are currently available.” ​

Further terms of this latest agreement will see ProBiotix hand over development and production to Italy’s Nutrilinea, who will cover development costs and the final product’s manufacture.

Meanwhile, Kappa and ProBiotix will leverage existing and new distribution networks to commercialise the product.

Optibiotix strategy ​

Formed in October 2018, specialist probiotic subsidiary ProBiotix Health is tasked with extending the firm’s probiotic R&D into multiple revenue streams in a series of license agreements involving LPLDL.

Optibiotix previously spoke of employing a business model that gives shareholders a position in multiple companies and with it the prospect of multiple returns.

The firm revealed it would develop its technology platforms into separate divisions, intellectual property portfolio and partner agreements with a view to eventually public list each division.

In May, the firm struck a licence agreement with Italy’s Nutrilinea for its use as a food supplement ingredient to help reduce high blood pressure.

Earlier that month, Optibiotix inked a three-year agreement with the Spanish Institute of Personalised Nutrition (IENP) that grants them non-exclusive rights to manufacture and market food supplements containing LPLDL in Spain.

Last year, Alfasigma was a partner in an exclusive licence agreement allowing the firm to commercialise food supplements containing the LPLDL probiotic strain in Italy.

Kappa’s K2VITAL ​

Based in Norway, Kappa’s vitamin K2 brand K2VITAL intends to complement LPLDL’s mode of action to reduce independent risk factors that threaten cardiovascular health.

Calcification of blood vessels reduces their elasticity leading to arterial hardening which in turn increases cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality.

LPLDL harnesses the microbiome-liver axis to positively impact upon the gut microbiome using a naturally occurring strain of the bacterial species Lactobacillus plantarum.​

The bacterium has previously demonstrated an ability to modulate the metabolism of bile acids aiding conditions such as high blood pressure and high cholesterol.

This ability extends to physiological processes including vitamin metabolism, glucose regulation and liver function.

Meanwhile, studies point to K2VITAL’s ability to keep calcium in the bones and away from the blood vessels thereby improving vascular health.

Just last month, Kappa launched a new 1% high-concentrate microencapsulated version of K2Vital to counteract the degradation of the vitamin when combined with minerals such as calcium or magnesium.