NattoPharma has today appointed Dr. Leon Schurgers as Vice President R&D and Dr. Elke Theuwissen as Manager Regulating Affairs. Dr. Schurgers is working for the Division on Vitamin K Research. This Division forms an essential part of the Cardiovascular Research Institute CARIM, which is the largest research institute of the University of Maastricht. The work includes molecular biology, biochemistry, animal and human nutrition, pharmacology, and clinical studies in the fields of atherosclerosis and osteoporosis. Leading the scientific part on vitamin K-research and supervising three technical engineers forms Dr. Schurgers major occupation. Additionally, Dr. Schurgers is a member of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research and the American Heart Association. He is referee for international scientific journals, and has published over 30 research papers, reviews, and book chapters in the international scientific press. Dr. Schurgers is also an Assistant Professor at the Department of Biochemistry, a function he will combine with his work at NattoPharma.

Dr. Theuwissen has been employed by VitaK for the last 2 years managing human and animal studies for NattoPharma. She has also supported NattoPharma in regulatory affairs and written scientific articles for us.

 "NattoPharma has an exclusive partnership agreement with VitaK, where 10 scientists are working for us, and participate strongly in our scientific development program, together with other scientists all over the world. By appointing Dr. Schurgers and Dr. Theuwissen directly in NattoPharma, we have strengthening our in-house expertise on vitamin K and R&D proficiency" says President and CEO Morten Sundstø in NattoPharma".

VitaK BV is an SME closely associated with the CArdioVascular Research Institute Maastricht (CARIM), University of Maastricht, The Netherlands. VitaK was established as a corporate business in March, 2001 and has expanded its expertise to areas outside that of CARIM. VitaK's prime expertise is technology around all forms of vitamin K and vitamin K-dependent proteins. VitaK is involved in discovering new functions for vitamin K, developing food supplements and health food containing new formulations of vitamin K in combination with other vitamins, minerals and trace elements, and in developing new assays to specifically assess the vitamin K status in liver, bone, cartilage and vascular tissue. One aspect of the latter line is diagnostics based on circulating MGP, which is a patented system to monitor cardiovascular disease via biochemical markers in blood.

 

NattoPharma, Norway is the exclusive international supplier of MenaQ7, the natural Vitamin K2. NattoPharma has entered into a multi-year research and development program to substantiate and discover the health benefits of natural vitamin K2 for applications in the exciting marketplace for functional food and health food supplements.

 

For more information, please visit our website www.nattopharma.com

For more information, please contact:

Mr. Morten Sundstø
CEO
+ 47 950 61 860