BioActor and Ferrer Grupo Sign Collaboration Agreement for BONOLIVE

Brussels, Belgium, May 05, 2009 --(PR.com)-- BioActor and Ferrer Grupo announced a Collaboration Agreement to jointly market BioActor’s innovative bone health ingredient BONOLIVE in selected markets.

BONOLIVE is a proprietary olive polyphenols formulation for bone health aimed at the prevention of age related osteoporosis. BONOLIVE has shown strong inhibition of accelerated bone loss in an animal model for menopause and inflammation induced bone loss. The first human clinical study with BONOLIVE recently started in collaboration with a specialized osteoporosis clinic in Europe. Recruitment of over 80 volunteers for the study was successfully completed and the first results of the study can be expected in 1 year.

Hans van der Saag, Managing Director of BioActor explains: “BONOLIVE presents a unique opportunity to expand the functionality of bone health products. It targets the underlying inflammatory processes that lead to osteoporosis and is especially important in age related osteoporosis in both men and women.”

Osteoporosis is becoming an increasing health burden, affecting an estimated 75 million people in Europe alone. Public health authorities have recognized the need for prevention and see functional foods and dietary supplements as excellent solutions for long term prevention of this chronic disease. BioActor has addressed this need by developing a unique product for bone health – BONOLIVE. Prevention of osteoporosis requires more than adequate vitamin D and calcium intake. Other factors that impact bone health are hormonal changes at menopause, exercise and (age related) chronic inflammation. BONOLIVE has already been successfully tested in an animal model for osteoporosis, showing it targets the underlying inflammatory processes that lead to osteoporosis.

Under this new collaboration, BioActor and Ferrer Grupo will collaborate on the clinical validation and food application of BONOLIVE and pool resources to market and sell BONOLIVE in a number of key markets. Moreover, Ferrer Grupo will custom-manufacture and supply to BIOACTOR a key component of BONOLIVE. “Bioactor’s scientific intellectual property perfectly complements Ferrer’s process technology and extensive experience in polyphenols.“ said Ernest Domènech, Head of the Health Ingredients Division of Ferrer Grupo.

BioActor, based in Ghent, Belgium, is a product development company that supplies proprietary bioactive formulations to the nutrition & healthcare industry. The company focuses on the development of innovative bioactives that address the metabolic syndrome and ageing related chronic health conditions. The goal is to provide the nutrition & healthcare industry with science-based innovations that confer a real health benefit to the consumer

Ferrer Grupo, based in Barcelona and made up of over 50 companies, operates in the pharmaceutical, fine chemicals and food sectors, three crucial areas in the improvement of people's health and quality of life.

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