Symrise Joins Forces with Cambridge Theranostics

09/04/08 Symrise AG have announced that they entered into a strategic partnership as of Dec. 21st, 2007 Cambridge Theranostics Ltd. Under the agreement, Symrise will contribute up to €8 million in milestone-related payments towards the development and clinical evaluation of new health and medical food products. The partners will share the profits on products resulting from the collaboration. For Symrise, this step means expanding its activity into the health market. This is a logical extension of its investment in the nutraceuticals sector with the successful acquisition of Kaden Biochemicals GmbH early 2006. In addition, Symrise has invested €2 million in capital into the English company which specializes in the diagnostics and prophylaxis of cardiovascular diseases. Cambridge Theranostics, which was founded in 2002 as a spin-off from Cambridge University, will use its proprietary screen to select natural products from Symrise’s extensive libraries of extracts and compounds to identify high value compounds that can best protect plasma lipoproteins from oxidative damage and afford effective protection against cardiovascular diseases. Cambridge Theranostics will then perform pharmacokinetic and clinical studies with the aim of launching two products by the year 2010. Cambridge Theranostics successfully developed Ateronon; the first clinically proven product able to inhibit plasma lipoprotein oxidation, which is also a natural product and is licensed to Cambridge Theranostics exclusively by Nestlé.

Dr. Gerold Linzbach, CEO of Symrise, said, “This alliance will enable us to enter our active ingredients into the high value healthcare sector. It is the next logical step in implementing our growth strategy by offering intelligent products which have an added value for consumers.”

Dr. G. H. Schmidt, CEO of Cambridge Theranostics, also confirms the major potential of this alliance: “Thanks to this partnership we can develop unique health products based on scientific and clinically validated knowledge. The products will be available via pharmacies. Prevention of cardio-vascular complications is a rapidly emerging healthcare sector, currently covered neither by traditional pharmaceutical companies, nor by the food industry. There is a particular need to maintain healthy blood vessels, because about half the population affected by heart attacks or strokes had no prior symptoms.”

In order to reflect the strategic orientation towards health and beauty, Symrise has renamed its Cosmetics business unit “Life Essentials”. Achim Daub, President of Scent & Care at Symrise, explains, “We look at the aspects of beauty and health from a broader point of view. The boundaries between beauty and healthy wellbeing have long since become blurred, as can be seen by the way the wellness movement emerged several years ago. People who are healthy and feel well radiate that feeling. Beauty comes from within as well. This is our premise and we take our strategy of the “Power of 'And'” to its natural conclusion: for us, beauty and health are inseparably intertwined.”