OptiBiotix Health launches SlimBiome weight management ingredient in Mexico

The UK-headquartered life sciences business explores the human microbiome and leverages the scientific understanding of its capabilities to support and oversee chronic disease management.

Using unique microbiome modulation science, as well as a patented formulation of natural ingredients identified and developed by leading specialists in metabolism and nutrition, SlimBiome will now be available in Mexico.

Manufacturing and Expansion Deal​

Alongside its entry into Mexico, OptiBiotix Health will extend the availability of its SlimBiome weight management offering to the US and Canada. The move enables OptiBiotix to tap into the North American weight management sector, which, in 2019, is estimated at $72 billion.

OptiBiotix Health focuses on using biotechnology to identify compounds that can help combat obesity, diabetes and high cholesterol. Through teaming up with Agropur, which places high-value functional ingredients into their food applications, Managing Director of Optibiotix’s prebiotics division, Dr. Fred Narbel, believes “the partnership is well aligned to meet the growing demands of the local population”​.

The duo’s collaboration will also “provide OptiBiotix market access in North America, with the benefit of a de-risked supply chain by adding the manufacturing process,”​ added Dr Fred Narbel.

Together, the companies will be able to “reduce lead-times and accelerate the commercialization of SlimBiome ​by leveraging on its technical skills and sales network which includes a sales office in Mexico,” ​said Dr Narbel.

Mexican Marketplace​

Mexico is a key growth market for OptiBiotix. Speaking with the microbiome specialists, the brand explained that SlimBiome ​will not be manufactured in Mexico. The ingredient will be agglomerated in the US and then distributed exclusively by Agropur in Mexico, the US and Canada.

“Having a commercial presence in the Mexican market is key to our global commercial expansion because it is a country where very large food and beverage multinationals have production assets,”​ said  Dr. Fred Narbel. “This will, in turn, allow us to gain a foothold in smaller Central and Latin American countries where those finished products will be exported.”​

According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), there were close to 24.3 million adults that were considered obese in Mexico in 2018. Of the 150 countries contained within in the study, Mexico ranked sixth in terms of the percentage of the population deemed obese.

However, a “lack of public awareness of the obesity problem in Mexico could be a barrier to building awareness – there is not a sense of urgency among the population”,​ Dr. Fred goes on to say. Therefore, “public awareness needs to be increased so that individuals become interested in preventative interventions”​.

Ingredient Innovation in Weight Management ​

SlimBiome is a patented functional ingredient, containing a mixture of non-digestible prebiotics and dietary fibers. It is designed to give consumers a feeling of longer-lasting satiety.

One of the main drivers behind the increasing obesity rate is physiological adaptations to food restrictions, OptiBiotix revealed. The brand is positioning functional ingredient SlimBiome to the market as it strives to help dieters lose weight by making them feel satiated.

“Everyone can lose weight by reducing their calorie intake, but it is difficult due to the feeling of hunger accompanying the process,”​ Dr. Fred Narbel explains. The company has engineered SlimBiome to eliminate the feeling of hunger.

Simultaneously, SlimBiome is designed to provide a gelling activity, which delays the stomach from emptying, further supporting the feeling of fullness; control blood sugar peaks and troughs, reducing cravings; and increase the diversity of microbes in the gut, which helps people lose weight more quickly and most importantly sustain this weight loss.  

The ingredient can be integrated into an array of human nutrition products, including food and beverages, dietary supplements, sports nutrition and dairy.

Looking at SlimBiome’s business viability, the “cost per serving is low, giving commercial partners an opportunity to include highly functional ingredients in their finished product formulations,”​ Dr.  Frederic Narbel stated.  

Up for a NutraIngredients-Asia Award​

Following SlimBiome’s win at NutraIngredients Awards 2018 for its Weight Management Ingredient of the Year​ award, SlimBiome Medical — A CE marked medical device — is nominated as a finalist in the ‘Ingredient of the Year: Weight Management’ category in the NutraIngredients-Asia 2019 awards​.

SlimBiome Medical contains the award-winning ingredient SlimBiome. Supported by science and containing medical device status, Slimbiome was developed to modify the human microbiome.

OptBiotix also reveals how SlimBiome results in a diverse microbiome due to its “high dietary and prebiotic fibre content”​, the company revealed in a press release.