A YORK company that develops compounds to tackle health issues including obesity has granted an exclusive licence for use of its products to an Italian food supplement specialist.

Optibiotix Health, based at York Science Park, has entered into a production and commercialisation agreement with Fine Foods & Pharmaceuticals.

The agreement grants Fine Foods an exclusive license for the production and supply of five formulations containing OptiBiotix’s LPLDL strain in Europe in return for royalty payments and a commitment to maximising the financial return for both parties.

Fine Foods is based in Italy and has more than 30 years’ experience in the design, development and manufacture of customised formulations and presentations for the pharmaceutical and food supplement industry.

Stephen O’Hara, chief executive of OptiBiotix, said: “This agreement extends the range of products and presentations containing OptiBiotix’s LPLDL and creates an opportunity to access global pharmaceutical markets with an established industry supplier. “

We chose Fine Foods due to its industry experience, reputation, rapid revenue growth, and impressive client list of global customers in both the Pharmaceutical and Food Supplement sectors. We believe our strategy of identifying and building partnerships with industry leading partners like Fine Foods, provides the best opportunity of rapidly building revenue streams, and establishing LPLDL as a leading global brand.”

With revenues of €120 million in 2017, Fine Foods is one of Europe’s largest and fastest growing providers of food supplements and pharmaceutical products, with certified production facilities and leading pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer, Bayer, Sanofi etc reported as customers on its website.

The five new formulations containing LPLDL that will be commercialised by Fine Foods under the agreement include one for glucose control, one for reduction of high blood pressure, one for reduction of cholesterol levels and two for the reduction of cardiovascular risk. They will be marketed in presentations including sachets and “melt in the mouth” sticks, to Fine Foods’ European network.

Giorgio Ferraris, chief executive of Fine Foods, said: “We believe this a unique opportunity for us to expand our commercial presence in the European Food Supplement industry.”