Ten-year federal research project on marine bioproducts in Australia will yield new discoveries about fucoidan, says Marinova: 2022 SupplySide West Report

Marine-ingredients supplier Marinova (Tasmania, Australia) is part of a new, 10-year federal research program in Australia whose purpose is to study marine bioproducts. The Australian-based company, which specializes in fucoidan ingredients, says this research will add to the breadth and depth of the science the company already has on its dietary supplement ingredients.

The federal Marine Bioproducts Cooperative Research Center (MB-CRC) is bringing together university researchers and marine biotechnology companies to study Australia’s rich landscape of marine ingredients. The purpose is to “fast-track the development of novel marine bioproducts for Australia,” said Marinova Marketing and Communications Manager Amanda MacKinnon at November’s SupplySide West trade show in Las Vegas. “Obviously, we’ve got a really big coastline, so the government is committed to developing that industry,” she said.

Marinova’s fucoidan extracts will be part of a swath of MB-CRC studies, with both Marinova and the Australian government contributing research funding.

Marinova touts itself as “the world’s only producer of high-purity, certified-organic fucoidan with global regulatory acceptance.” The company has been actively studying its fucoidan extracts for years. In fact, fucoidan offers benefits in so many health areas that deciding where to concentrate the research is sometimes difficult, said MacKinnon.

“One of the challenges we face is that fucoidan is relevant to a number of healthy indications, so we can’t just be a specialist in immune health or a specialist in gut health,” she noted. “Fucoidan from different species of seaweed have different bioactivities, so that’s why we are quite diverse in our research program.”

Already, the company’s key focus areas have been immune support, gut health, and healthy aging. But the company also has studies in progress on sports nutrition and even for medical conditions like prostate cancer. Paul Garrott, Marinova’s CEO and managing director, noted, “We’re getting quite a lot of interest from the pharma/medical device space at the moment for those types of applications. That even extends into dermatology and some of those other areas as well.”

Marinova’s participation in MB-CRC will expand fucoidan research to many other health concerns, said Garrott. “It will enable us to increase the breadth of our research program,” he said.