LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Life sciences business OptiBiotix Health announced on Wednesday that its fully-owned subsidiary ProBiotix Health, in partnership with Nutrilinea, has completed a successful human study for a new food supplement formulation containing 'LPLDL', and showed that the product could reduce high blood pressure, or hypertension.
The AIM-traded firm said the study was part of an agreement with Nutrilinea to fund the development, manufacture, and the carrying out of human studies for a new blood pressure product in return for 12 months exclusivity from the date the data was made available from the human study for the European market.

ProBiotix had exclusivity for the UK and all other markets outside Europe.

The three month study of 40 patients was carried out by the Center of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Department of Internal Medicine and Therapeutics, University of Pavia and Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy, and showed statistically significant reductions in both systolic, diastolic blood pressure levels, and cholesterol levels.

OptiBiotix said the results of the study were consistent with ProBiotix's initial study conducted at the University of Reading, which showed a statistically significant reduction in both blood pressure and cholesterol in volunteers taking LPLDL.

The European Cardiovascular Society reported in 2016 that the combination of lowering LDL cholesterol and systolic blood pressure had the potential to "dramatically reduce" a person's lifetime risk of cardiovascular disease.

Hypertension was described as a global healthcare issue, and one of the strongest risk factors for almost all cardiovascular diseases.

The fact that it did not have obvious symptoms had led doctors to call hypertension a "silent killer", OptiBiotix said.

Studies conducted in Europe and in the United States suggested that, under new hypertension guidelines, a large percentage of the adult population may be considered hypertensive, totalling around 14 million people in the UK and more than 100 million in the US.

"We are very pleased to have partnered with Nutrilinea who covered the cost of the product development, manufacturing, and the human study," said ProBiotix chief executive officer Steve Prescott.

"Because hypertension affects millions of people globally and is a serious risk factor for cardiovascular disease, we are excited to offer a natural product that has been clinically proven to lower hypertension.

"Adding this new formulation to our portfolio of existing products that target cholesterol reduction, CholBiome and CholBiome x3, allows ProBiotix to offer a best in class cardiovascular health solutions to consumers."

At 1547 GMT, shares in OptiBiotix Health were up 0.74% at 56.92p.

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