Probi and Skånemejerier ready to launch new range of immune products

Probi and Skånemejerier have today agreed to launch an entirely new range of products that strengthens the natural body defence and helps with common colds. The plan is to launch the range during the second half of 2009. Probi will thereby take its first step into the immune market with a global value of 40 billion SEK.

”We have had a successful collaboration with Skånemejerier around ProViva since 1994 and are therefore very excited about the possibility to launch an entirely new range of beverages together with them,” says Michael Oredsson, CEO at Probi. The products contain probiotics developed by Probi over several years and for which an extensive clinical study on common colds was presented in August 2008. The study was carried out in Berlin by an independent research institute on behalf of Probi. The placebo-controlled, randomized multi-center study comprised 310 volunteers. “We believe that delicious products, that noticeably improve consumer’s body defence and provide benefits such as fewer, milder and shorter common cold periods, have the potential to become bestsellers in the chilled category,” says Björn Sederblad, CEO at Skånemejerier. The range will contain a combination of two new probiotic strains patented by Probi, one within the family Lactobacillus plantarum and one within Lactobacillus paracasei. In the Berlin study the degree of common cold symptoms and the duration of common cold periods were significantly reduced in the group that received Probi’s product, compared to placebo. From a commercial point of view, the most interesting result was that nearly 50 percent of those given Probi’s product considered it to be very effective and another 20 percent considered it to be effective. The level was considerably lower for those who were given placebo and almost no one in that group considered the treatment to be very effective.