Phytoquest Limited

How realistic is the

emergence of a converged

pharma and food industry?

Robert J. Nash

Phytoquest Limited

Healthy Food Terms

• Healthy Food Choices: Common term used for educational & marketing

purposes.

• Nutraceuticals: A food or food product that provides health and medical

benefits. Such products may range from isolated nutrients, dietary

supplements, herbal products and processed foods such as cereals, soups,

and beverages.

• Functional Food: Many definitions exist worldwide for functional foods, but

there is no official or commonly accepted definition. Functional foods are

designed to allow consumers to eat enriched foods close to their natural

state, rather than by taking dietary supplements manufactured in liquid or

capsule form.

• Medical Foods: Medical foods are always designed to meet certain

nutritional requirements for people diagnosed with specific illnesses. Medical

foods will be prescribed / monitored by medical supervision

Phytoquest Limited

Father of Western Medicine

“Our food should be our medicine. Our medicine should be our food.”

Hippocrates Circa 460 – 370 BC

Many medicinal drugs have come from what Hippocrates might have called

“foods”

Phytoquest Limited

Major Driver - Healthcare is expensive

Source: Economist

UK 10% of GDP on

healthcare

USA 18.1% of GDP on

healthcare

China 5.4%

Phytoquest Limited

Changes in lifestyle and lifespan causing new problems

• Obesity

• Diabetes

• Age-related dementia

• Immune deficiency

• Allergies

Phytoquest Limited

Pharmaceutical Approach

• Single characterised compounds

• Composition carefully controlled

• Proven activity in vitro (laboratory) and in vivo (animal studies)

• Clinical/safety data necessary

• Effective and safe doses known

Phytoquest Limited

Source:Wikibooks, 2014

Phytoquest Limited 8 |

Pharmaceuticals

Functional Foods

Nutraceuticals and

Herbal Medicines

Big Opportunities in Areas of Market Overlap

Medical Foods

Phytoquest Limited

Major Hurdles

• Plants/microbial materials are very complex chemically and usually not well

defined

• Plant/microbial chemical composition and, therefore, activity differs with

varieties/growth stage/growth conditions, etc

• Extraction and preparation method alters the composition/activity

• In many cases marketing has promoted the unproven components as being

important leading to confusion

• Active component(s) in vivo need to be identified and measured

• Biological evaluation needs to be related to in vivo activity/clinical benefits

• Higher development cost requires clear product differentiation and protection

Phytoquest Limited 10 |

Are there new medicines to be found in Nature?

• The active metabolites of very few plants are conclusively known

• Screening by pharmaceutical companies was very wasteful

• Most herbs were traditionally prepared in water but most screening methods

used solvent extraction

• Many ingredient extracts have poor representation of water-soluble

compounds

• Analysis is usually of major non-polar compounds amenable to the easiest

methods

• There is wide variation in commercial preparation methods

• There is controversy over most herbal medicines on whether they work and,

if so, how despite decades of research worldwide, e.g. Echinacea, St John’s

wort

Phytoquest Limited

Carbohydrates: The elusive active components of plants?

“One of ten emerging technologies that will change the world”

MIT Review 2003

Carbohydrates and associated

receptors present excellent drug

targets and a growing market

opportunity

Carbohydrate complexity and diversity greatly exceeds that of proteins and genes

D N A

R N A

P r o t e i n

C a r b o h y d r a t e s

T r a d i t i o n a l D r u g D i s c o v e r y

New D r u g D i s c o v e r y Opportunities

G e n o m e

R i b o m e

P r o t e o m e

G l y c o m e

M o l e c u l a r I n f o r m a t i o n

Confidential for DSM

Phytoquest Limited

EFSA evaluated 44,000 health claims – approved 222 (by 2012)

Criteria used

• whether the subject of the claimed effect (food, substance) can be defined

sufficiently for a scientific assessment

• whether the claimed effect is indeed beneficial for health

• whether the studies considered as pertinent by EFSA could allow

establishing of a cause and effect relationship between the food and the

claimed effect

Phytoquest Limited

Claims rejected by EFSA

• apple cider vinegar can improve bowel movement

• the horsetail plant (Equisetum arvense L.) can help maintain normal

hair

• green tea is good for blood pressure, cholesterol levels, bones, teeth

and eyesight or that it works as an antioxidant

• cranberry juice can reduce the risk of urinary tract infection in women

• the probiotic Lactobacillus plantarum supports the immune system

• sugar-free chewing gum can reduce dental plaque

• glucosamine can reduce the risk of osteoarthritis

EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA)

is responsible for verifying the scientific substantiation of the

health claims.

Phytoquest Limited

Fruit and vegetables are healthy but why?

• The active components are usually not clearly defined

• There is much confusion and misinformation in the public domain

• Scientific papers often add to the confusion by measuring unproven

components assumed to be the actives but which are really markers

• Clinical data is not usually available and trials often fail to show benefits

Phytoquest Limited 15 |

Natural Active Components

Identified

Market Exclusivity Enrich Activity

Standardise Products

Unlock New Activities

Basis for Substantiation

Benefits for Converged Products

Phytoquest Limited

Synergy is a problem for the pharmaceutical approach but

advantage for healthy foods

• Defining beneficial ratios may be virtually impossible

• All components may not be known

• People will respond differently and have different requirements, e.g. for

nutrients

Phytoquest Limited

A strict pharmaceutical approach may eliminate valuable

components, e.g. Stevia

• Stevia has many traditional health claims

• The processed Stevia commercially available discards many of the

bioactive compounds – zero calories and perhaps zero other benefits

• A cruder well characterised extract may be much healthier

Phytoquest Limited

Varieties vary, e.g. Cucumber

• A single anti-inflammatory iminosugar present in certain

varieties

• Compound reduces TNF-alpha directly

• Orally available and stable

• Reduces inflammatory responses like a steroid but is not

steroidal

, 01-Oct-2010 + 18:46:27cucumber 108/3

4.93 6.93 8.93 10.93 12.93 14.93 16.93Time0

100

%

PHQ015308 Scan EI+ TIC

5.67e75.45

4.57

4.02

10.636.73

6.34

Phytoquest Limited

Conclusions

• There is more overlapping likely than consolidation

• Anything that reduces demands on the health services should be

encouraged

• Foods can prevent illness but not necessarily processed products or

modern varieties

• There is a need to educate the public better about healthy foods but more

reliable information is needed particularly on-line

• Food industry can learn much from pharmaceutical approaches that will

enhance public confidence

• Beneficial activities need to be proven and measured in end products

• Cost and timescale is going to restrict food companies