HERSTAL, Belgium – May 28, 2013 – Slim-Med^TM received a prize trophy at the Nutraceutical Business & Technology (NBT) Awards gala dinner in Geneva, May 15.

Following two years of market-leading product development, Slim-Med^TM is now recognized as the “Best New Finished Product” by a judging panel assembled exclusively from leading healthcare organizations and top business school academics.

Today there exists a real challenge for the Consumer Health industry as regards innovating within the weight management category. The major advance for KitoZyme with Slim-Med^TM is the medical device statement which brings a strong technical file that incorporates both clinical evidence and safety. “To receive this award means a great deal for KitoZyme. It represents the clear recognition of the considerable efforts made by our entire team to find creative answers to the regulatory environment in Europe” explained François Luthers, Sales and Marketing Manager of KitoZyme.

Based on this challenge and the requirements of consumers, KitoZyme decided to pursue true innovation within the Consumer Health industry and to capitalize on the incredible functional properties of its proprietary fibers. “Right now, our goal is to provide two new products per year to our partners and to accelerate our growth by ensuring an innovation pipeline” concluded François Luthers.

The NBT Awards recognize and reward excellence in R&D, marketing, business and technology throughout the nutraceutical, functional food and beverage industry. The mission is to deliver a set of benchmarks to a global audience to achieve significant developments in terms of quality of service, health management, research, development and relationship management.

About Slim-Med^TM

Slim-Med^TM is a lipid binder to be used in the treatment and prevention of overweight in order to prevent diseases related to excess of weight and body fats. This private label, a class IIa medical device, is a unique business opportunity with product claims approved EU-wide. This medical device status guarantees a high level of quality and safety following the Directive 93/42. Based on a full dossier with clinical evidence and a guaranteed mechanism of action of vegetable chitosan, KitoZyme’s private label solution gains the approval of the authority.

If you want to know more about our medical device solution, click here

KitoZyme would be delighted to welcome you to our exhibition booth (number W05) at the Vitafoods Europe event that will be held in Geneva from 14-16 May 2013.

Visit our booth to discover our private labels to treat obesity as well as our specialty ingredients for arterial health, shelf life extension or weight and cholesterol management.

Furthermore, you will also be able to discover our new Slim-Med ™ for weight and cholesterol management as the NBT Awards finalist and in the New Product Zone.

Vitafoods Europe has become an essential event in the nutraceutical and food ingredients calender. A repution for showcasing many new products and giving visitors the opportunity to discover the latest developments in the industry, all at one time, in one place.

We hope to see you at our stand!

KitoZyme and the University of Liège create SYNOLYNE, a spin-off focused on arthrosis treatment

In collaboration with the University of Liège, KitoZyme, world leader in the production of vegetable chitosan, announces the launch of its first spin-out: Synolyne.

With a starting capital of about one million euros, Synolyne will focus on the research, development and marketing of a patented medical device designed to treat arthrosis by promoting cartilage repair.

Arthrosis is a joint disease. Its prevalence increases with age and the population’s increased life expectancy. It affects more than half the people aged over 65 and occupies the second rank of chronic diseases after cardiovascular conditions. It is treated by mouth or by intra-articular route, with paracetamol, hyaluronic acid, etc. According to a study by Frost & Sullivan conducted in the United States, the viscosupplementation market exceeded USD 400 million in 2010. The arthrotic joint supplementation biomaterial used by Synolyne will consist of a gel containing micropearls of KiOmedine-CsU^®, an ultra pure chitosan of non-animal origin developed by KitoZyme  and produced using a patented process.

KitoZyme  received shares in the new company in exchange for its contribution in kind (an intellectual property licence agreement). The company will also receive royalties on future sales of Synolyne and will supply the biomaterial involved in the composition of the medical device, KiOmedine-CsU^®.

In addition to KitoZyme  and the University of Liège (via Gesval, its valorisation interface), the shareholders in the new start-up are Meusinvest and Professor Henrotin, Director of the UROC (Unité de Recherche sur l’Os et le Cartilage, Bone and Cartilage Research Unit).

More about KiOmedine^®

Meet us at CHICAGO - KitoZyme exhibits at the 2013 BIO International Convention 

KitoZyme will be exhibiting at the next BIO international Convention in Chicago during April 22-25, 2013.

We would like to invite you to visit our booth 2317 - Hall B and discover our KiOmedine^® range of ultra-pure biopolymers for medical devices and drug delivery, together with a pioneering platform of innovative formulations.

Safe and reliable, KiOmedine^® ultra-pure chitosan is ideal for:

• Wound healing and hemostasis
• Biosurgery
• Scaffold and cell therapy
• Drug delivery and vaccines

Partnering with KitoZyme and injecting KiOmedine^® technology into your business will give you the competitive edge you need.

More about KiOmedine^®

KitoZyme - Capital increase - 9 million EUR

KitoZyme, an innovative company active in the biochemistry sector and a leader in its market segment, has announced the recent finalization of a capital increase for a total amount of 9 million euros.

The issue of new shares was reserved for and entirely underwritten by the company’s two main shareholders: the company Valois (Mestdagh Group and Montulet family) and the SRIW, the Wallonia Regional Investment Company.

This capital increase will significantly build the company’s equity and will allow it to actively continue developing new products and its international commercial expansion.

About us

François Blondel joins KitoZyme as CEO

KitoZyme, the privately held Belgium-based world leader in the production of vegetable chitosan and chitin-glucan, is very pleased to announce the appointment of François Blondel as the new Chief Executive Officer of the company.

François Blondel, 49, was also appointed to the KitoZyme Board of Directors, effective November 30, 2012.

Prior to joining KitoZyme, François Blondel has gained broad experience in the management of innovation driven companies. He started his career in the chemical and in the oil and gas sectors, with assignments both in the United States and in Europe. In 1999, he joined International Brachytherapy (IBt), a startup in the medical device sector focused on cancer treatment. He served as CEO, leading IBt, a Euronext stock listed company, from its R&D stage to a successful and well diversified international group, European leader in its sector. Today, he is also serving as a board member of Compagnie du Bois Sauvage (diversified holding company listed on Euronext), Sopartec (holding of UCL university spinoffs), Nanocyl (world leader in production of carbon nanotubes), and a number of other companies active in the technology sector.

About us

New applications based on KiOmedine-CsU®, the world’s first GMP ultra-pure chitosan of non-animal origin

Recently medical and pharma professionals read several articles about chitosan in pharma and medical industry including some highlighting brand new applications based on KiOmedine-CsU^®, the unique GMP ultra-pure animal-free chitosan.

Since several years, KitoZyme is pushing its technology platform KiOmedine^® by developing its expertise around it or improving the characteristics and safety profile of the KiOmedine^®product range. A tight management of the molecular characteristics of ultra-pure chitosan was established, enabling for the first time to supply an ultra-pure GMP animal-free chitosan now in 4 different molecular weights, including the latest advancement of a low molecular weight version. The molecular weight of KiOmedine-CsU^® is now ranged from 40,000 to 200,000, with narrow polydispersity and high batch-to-batch consistency.

This extended range gives the opportunity to medical and pharmaceutical companies to screen variable molecular characteristics for optimum and consistent performance, providing opportunities for customized specification and greater differentiation of the final formulations. Freshly Novartis has published the use of the lowest molecular weight KiOmedine-CsU^® to create various polyplexes for the delivery of siRNA¹.

Besides, the University of Liège in Belgium recently developed a 3-D dressing composed of chitosan nanofibers and a porous chitosan membrane (made with KiOmedine-CsU^®) that promises to shorten the healing time of skin wounds by stimulating migration, invasion, and proliferation of the relevant cutaneous resident cells. When used as a dressing covering full-thickness skin wounds in mice, chitosan nanofibrils induced a faster regeneration of both the epidermis and dermis compartments. The study illustrates the critical importance of the nanofibrillar structure of chitosan devices for their full biocompatibility, and demonstrates the significant beneficial effect of chitosan as a wound-healing biomaterial².

Another breakthrough in the medical device area is the development of hydrogel beads for intra-articular injection in knee arthritis indications, based on KiOmedine-CsU^®. This innovation is now patented and is subject to the creation of a new spin-off called Synolyne.

The safety and efficacy of KiOmedine-CsU^® was proven in other formulations and therapeutic strategies, such as nanoparticles, tubes, fibres, scaffolds, viscous solutions, and other surgical implants. The availability of KiOmedine-CsU^® is clearly triggering new developments of chitosan-based pharmaceutical and medical device applications beyond topical and haemostatic use. The KiOmedine^® range is available from KitoZyme and from Sigma-Aldrich for research purposes.

1 Holzerny et al, J Control Release. 2012 Jan 30;157(2):297-304

2 Tchemtchoua et al, Biomacromolecules 2011, 12, 3194–3204

Discover more about KiOmedine range  here

We had the pleasure to meet many actors in the health sector at HiE in Frankfurt and we thank you all for your interest in our company and its products and values.

We, at KitoZyme, wanted to share our ingredients and medical devices during this trade show. KiOnutrime -Cs^® designed for weight and cholesterol management came under the spotligh. Our fiber was indeed displaying in the New Product Zone as a medical device solution but also named as a finalist for the NUW.

We also would like to thank you all the participants to our contest Crunch & Win

Our team is looking forward to seeing you soon for another successful trade show!

Discover KiOnutrime -Cs^®here

Discover KiOnutrime^®Protect for immune health here

Discover our medical device for weight management here

Discover Medical device alternative to cosmetics creams here

KITOZYME – NUW AWARDS FINALIST for Weight & Hunger Management Innovation of the year

KitoZyme was announced as NuW Excellence Awards finalist in Weight & Hunger Management Innovation of the Year for KiOnutrime-Cs^® by UBM plc main organiser of the Health Ingredients Europe event taking place at the Messe Frankfurt between the 13th and 15th November 2012. The winners of the categories will be announced at a drinks reception at the Messe Frankfurt from 6pm on the 13th November 2012.

Chairman of judges Peter Wennstrom commented on the finalists: "The calibre of entries submitted and the level of interest in the 2012 NuW Excellence Awards programme was impressive. We are proud to recognise and honour such outstanding companies and individuals atthe NuW Excellence Awards. We would also like to thank all those who entered this year and look forward to seeing all finalists at the Awards presentation in November."

Building on the renowned Innovation Awards, the NuW Excellence Awards 2012 will recognise individuals and business for their exemplary work and contribution to the industry.

The awards will be judged by a leading panel of industry experts who will evaluate your entry on its ability to demonstrate and drive innovation.

About UBM

UBM plc is a leading global company. We inform markets and bring the world's buyers and sellers together at events, online, in print and provide them with the information they need to do business successfully. We focus on serving professional commercial communities, from doctors to game developers, from journalists to jewellery traders, and from farmers to pharmacists around the world. Our 6,600 staff in more than 31 countries are organised into specialist teams that serve these communities, helping them to do business effectively and efficiently.

Click here to arrange a meeting at our booth D42 - Hall 3

Click here to know more about KiOnutrime-Cs^®

The immune system is the body’s natural defense system. It protects against invasion by bacteria, viruses, parasites and fungi. As the colder months arrive, it is the perfect time to think about strengthening your immune system.

Cold is one of the things that can weaken the immune system among many other things, such as change of seasons, stress, a poor diet, and drugs. A weakened immune system leaves, therefore, your body vulnerable to disease.

Following recent pandemics such as the swine flu, there is a growing trend of staying healthy and an increasing awareness and promotion of immune health ingredients in preventing flu-like symptoms and respiratory infections. Maintaining a healthy and well-balanced diet during the colder months is one of the best possible ways to strengthen your body and prevent it from minor viruses. However the immune system can benefit from a bit of support with natural supplements.

In this field, non-digestible polysaccharides and particularly beta-glucans have been largely tested to study their connections with the immune system. Many studies prove their positive effects on gut and immune health by safely activate key immune cells, such as neutrophils, the most abundant class of cells in the immune system. Research indicates also that beta-glucan, as fibers, can activate the immune health starting from improving gut health.

An exhaustive review of the scientific literature identified a representative sample of approximately 100 articles concerning the effect of beta‐glucans on the immune system.

In this context, and given the growing trend for global health and specifically health prevention, KitoZyme has successfully designed KiOnutrime^® Protect, a new plant-based beta(1,3)-glucan with key characteristics.

• Self-affirmed GRAS status
• High purity ingredient (≥75%)
• Unique plant-based beta-glucan derived from a new source
• Safe and non-allergenic: 100% animal-free, GMO-free, allergen-free
• Scientifically-proven ingredient designed to enhance key immune cells
• Obtained through a sustainable, biotechnology innovative process
• Appropriate for use in Kosher, Halal and vegetarian products

In a first approach, KitoZyme has validated the bioactivity of KiOnutrime^® Protect to investigate how this new beta-glucan is active in several studies. These studies clearly show that:

• KiOnutrime^® Protect significantly stimulates oxidative burst and degranulation.
• KiOnutrime^® Protect is proved to increase monocytes, dentritic cells and cytokines, all of them playing a key role in the immune response.

By activating these, the immune system may be enhanced and illness may be avoided.

Read more about KiOnutrime^® Protect…