Nutrition 21 Secures USDA License For Faster-Acting Chromium Formulation
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Nutritional bioscience firm Nutrition 21 received an exclusive license from the Agriculture Department for pharmaceutical uses of chromium histidinate, which it may use to develop a product also containing another form of chromium
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Nutritional bioscience firm Nutrition 21 received an exclusive license from the Agriculture Department for pharmaceutical uses of chromium histidinate, which it may use to develop a product also containing another form of chromium. The Purchase, N.Y.-based firm said April 24 the new chromium formulation - a complex of chromium picolinate and the histidine amino acid - appears to complement existing Nutrition 21 products such as Chromax and Diachrome . The firm promotes those products as helping control diabetics' insulin levels. Chromax contains only chromium picolinate, while Diachrome is a patented combination of chromium picolinate and biotin, a B vitamin, Nutrition 21 said. "This chromium histidinate is water soluble where chromium picolinate is fat soluble so the chromium histidinate appears to give a quick absorption and quick effect and the chromium picolinate appears to give a slower absorption and longer-lasting effect," James Komorowski, Nutrition 21's vice president for technical services and scientific affairs, told "The Tan Sheet." Komorowski said the firm "for some time" has been conducting studies on the chromium histidinate form, alone and in combination with chromium picolinate. The company also is reviewing data from previous chromium histidinate trials. The firm has not stated a potential launch date for any chromium histidinate products. Its USDA license for chromium histidine expires in 2019, the firm said. Nutrition 21 already owns several chromium patents and has applied to the U.S. Patent and Trademarks Office for additional patents for certain dietary supplement uses for chromium histidinate, both alone and in combination with the picolinate formulation. The firm said its existing patents - and those it has applied for - cover "all known nutritional uses" of chromium histidinate as a dietary supplement. Nutrition 21 has put a priority on obtaining patents for its products. Company President and CEO Paul Intlekofer has commented that abuse of IP rights limits investment in the supplement industry (1 (Also see "Intellectual Property Concerns Spur New Supplement Initiatives For 2007" - Pink Sheet, 5 Feb, 2007.), p. 8). - Jessica Lake ([email protected]) |