The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued a notice of allowance to Aker BioMarine for a new patent covering its PL+ EPA/DHA technology, an innovation that is bringing new bioavailable combination products to the nutraceuticals industry. The patent helps give Aker BioMarine’s customers the confidence that their products, utilizing the PL+ technology, are exclusive and backed by scientific credibility.
Aker BioMarine has received its first allowance for a patent for its PL+ DHA/EPA delivery technology platform, which is an important milestone for the company’s innovation pipeline. PL+ technology from Aker BioMarine, which launched in late 2022, uses natural marine phospholipids (PL’s) to maximize the uptake of other ingredients. It enables dual solubility in water and in fats and acts as an emulsifier and a booster of absorption to enhance uptake of supplements up to 25 times.
This new patent application protects the PL+ EPA/DHA formulation, which is based on a mixture of krill phospholipids and EPA and DHA from processed fish oil (processed into ethyl esters). The patent demonstrates that the combination of krill phospholipids and added ethyl esters (or triglycerides) results in enhanced emulsions, which are believed to be essential to improve the uptake of EPA and DHA in the stomach.
The patent claims and protects lipid formulations for use in therapy to enhance absorption of fish oil derivatives having the following key features:
- 17-75 % weight by weight of total phospholipids, meaning from 17 g to 75 g of phospholipids per 100 g of the composition
- 16-50 % weight by weight of DHA and/or EPA in the form of ethyl esters
- where the formulation forms emulsion with preferable droplet size in the stomach
“This patent reaffirms the advances that Aker BioMarine is making in the industry when it comes to innovation by truly tapping into the full potential of krill oil phospholipids,” says Simon Seward, CEO, Human Health Ingredients. “In today’s market, we know that consumers are looking for personalization and combination products to help target key health benefit areas. And during a time when our industry is experiencing fish oil supply and demand challenges, with PL+ we can reduce fish oil integration in a formula while increasing bioavailability, enhancing consumer experience, and enabling new innovations in the category.”
“At Aker BioMarine, innovation is always high, and science is a priority,” adds Kristin Holmgren, Intellectual Property Manager. “In fact, we recently conducted a double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial and confirmed that krill oil is a more bioavailable source of omega-3s compared to regular fish oil. The positivity of this study, combined with the approval from the USPTO, provides assurance that our PL+ technology brings valuable innovations in today’s omega-3 climate and beyond. We also have the opportunity to expand this patent application into a patent family of more PL+ products in the future.”