Last week\u2019s headlines included China\u2019s new regulations for probiotic health foods, The Akkermansia Company\u2019s new U.S. patent, and IM8\u2019s \u2018unconventional\u2019 $1 billion financing deal.<\/p>\n
China\u2019s State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) has drafted new laws regarding the filing and registration procedures for health foods containing probiotic raw materials, which are now open for public consultation until August 24, 2026.<\/p>\n
The newly drafted regulations, once implemented, will replace those previously in place known as \u201cDeclaration and Review of Probiotic Health Food (Trial)\u201d. <\/p>\n
Five main changes are introduced in the proposal, including increasing the minimum colony-forming unit (CFU) during product shelf life and the need to specify the probiotic strains used as well as their functionalities and genetic stability.<\/p>\n
The Chinese regulator said the proposed laws seek to ensure strain traceability and quality control. <\/p>\n
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued The Akkermansia Company (TAC) with a new patent, granting the company the exclusive right to market Akkermansia for metabolic disorders.<\/p>\n
The claims of this new patent cover methods of promoting weight loss through oral administration of substantially purified Akkermansia, including both live and pasteurized forms. <\/p>\n
This represents a significant expansion of the company\u2019s U.S. patent protection. While previous patents issued to TAC\u2014which was acquired by Danone last year\u2014addressed pasteurized Akkermansia specifically, this new patent extends enforceable protection to all substantially purified forms of the bacterium, including viable live cells.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese developments recognize and protect years of scientific research that have advanced our understanding of Akkermansia and its role in human health,\u201d said. Professor Willem M. de Vos, co-founder of The Akkermansia Company. \u201cStrong intellectual property protection helps ensure that scientific discoveries can be translated into innovative products while supporting continued investment in research and expanding access to Akkermansia-based health solutions.\u201d<\/p>\n
After landing $1 billion in growth financing from General Catalyst\u2019s Customer Value Fund (CVF), IM8 is entering its next chapter: accelerating international expansion, broadening its product portfolio and building on the momentum of its David Beckham-backed launch.<\/p>\n
The financing highlights IM8\u2019s rapid ascent, coming only 19 months after the premium supplement brand entered the market.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis deal is the best thing that\u2019s ever happened to our R&D budget,\u201d said Danny Yeung, CEO and co-founder of Prenetics, which is headquartered in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n
The deal\u2019s unconventional structure has made it one of the most talked-about financings in the supplement sector, shifting IM8\u2019s focus from announcing the investment to explaining how the model will fuel its growth.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet me clarify the structure, because it\u2019s genuinely novel,\u201d Yeung said. \u201cGeneral Catalyst funds 70% of whatever we invest in marketing each month, in advance, and we fund the remaining 30% ourselves. The entire $1 billion is dedicated to growth, and that\u2019s precisely the point: This structure exists so that growth capital and innovation capital never compete again.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week\u2019s headlines included China\u2019s new regulations for probiotic health foods, The Akkermansia Company\u2019s new U.S. patent, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":732765,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[97,269],"class_list":["post-800859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nutrition","tag-health","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800859","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800859"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800859\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/732765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800859"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800859"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800859"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}