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Litozin
is 'next generation' in joint care, says EuroPharma
22
August 2007
As
edited by Joint-Pain-Forum.com
EuroPharma
is introducing an innovative joint care ingredient derived from rose
hip to the US market, claimed to be even more effective than
glucosamine. The arrival of Litozin is particularly timely as
osteoarthritis sufferers are seeking out natural relief following the
Vioxx safety scandal.
Available in Scandinavian countries
for the past two years, Litozin
was discovered and developed by small, family run Danish business Hyben
Vital. With five years of scientific research behind it and
13 studies completed to date, Litozin is making its debut on a US
market that is hungry for safe and effective solutions. EuroPharma
founder and president Terry Lemerond told NutraIngredients-USA.com that
the origins of the ingredient are home-spun. The grandfather suffered
from arthritis and began eating rosehip jam, a traditional Scandinavian
remedy, to alleviate the pain. He was so impressed by the effects that
he started to grow the plant on his farm, and managed to identify the
active galactolipid compound (GOPO). GOPO content
varies considerably between different species of rose hip, but Hyben
Vital was able to develop a sub-species with the highest possible
content. Its patented drying process ensures that
high levels of the compound remain in the finished product. EuroPharma says that
conventional processing methods, including sun drying, destroy the
GOPO, meaning that little or none of it remains in other
commonly-available rose hip products. Litozin is
GRAS (generally recognized as safe) in the United States. "We
are going to work with anyone who wants to put it in any kind of food,
such as bread, bars or even powders," said Lemerond. Lemerond
takes the credit for introducing the hugely popular joint health ingredient glucosamine to the US
market. He explained that glucosamine has a different mechanism of
action to Litozin: it rebuilds cartilage but does not act as an
anti-inflammatory. Of the chemical, pharmacological
and clinical studies involving Litozin completed to date, the most
recent, published in the August 2005 issue of the Scandinavian
Journal of Rheumatology, found it resulted in a significant
reduction in pain on the WOMAC scale after three months. Whereas
glucosamine has been shown to be effective in 40 percent of study
participants, Litozin boasts efficacy in 82 percent of cases, said
Lemerond. What is more, in the Scandinavian Journal of Rheumatology
study patients were allowed to take 'rescue medication' to reduce the
pain after the first three weeks, if they felt the need.
----------------------------
Article
adapted by
www.Joint-Pain-Forum.com from original press release.
----------------------------
With Litozin, use of rescue medication
significantly declined, in some cases by 100 percent. This is
particularly significant given the recent safety concerns over
conventional pain relief medication such as Cox-2 inhibitor Vioxx. Since
Litozin is an anti-inflammatory, it could be useful for other
inflammation-related conditions such as asthma, psoriasis and Crohn's
disease. However its use in these areas has not yet been studied or
patented. Glucosamine sulphate was introduced to
the US market in 1993, and estimates set the market value at around
$800 million. Around half of the new joint health supplement products
listed in Mintel's Global New
Products Database in 2004 contain glucosamine - a far
higher proportion than for any other ingredient. Lemerond
said that it will take a few years to get the word out about Litozin,
but he expects that it will be "quite explosive" in
time, becoming a $100 to $150 million product in the next two to three
years. In Sweden, where glucosamine is available on
prescription and is therefore free to users, 50-60,000 units of Litozin
are sold each month, according to Lemerond. He said this means that
users are choosing to use a product they have to pay for over the free
one, as it is so effective.
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