TSI Group announces ANVISA approval in Brazil for its HMB ingredient

Photo © iStockphoto.com/volk65

TSI Group Ltd. (Missoula, MT), maker of myHMB, a metabolite of leucine shown to improve lean body mass, muscle strength, and physical function, has announced the successful registration of HMB with the Brazilian regulatory body, Agencia Nacional de Vigilancia Sanitaria (ANVISA).

“To receive the ANVISA positive listing was a very comprehensive task,” explains John C. Fuller, Jr., PhD, TSI Group’s director of regulatory, in a press release. “Brazil is highly regulated, which fits with our extensive research dossier well. I am gratified to have successfully completed this application because myHMB will end up helping a lot of people in Brazil.”

Brazil is an important market for TSI and HMB, being one of the most affluent countries in South America that exerts significant influence on the continent. Another factor that makes Brazil a significant market is the proactive relationship consumers have with their physicians and pharmacists.

“In Brazil, pharmacists and physicians play a strong and well-established role in educating and prescribing proven health products to patients across the country,” says TSI group president Larry Kolb. “When an ingredient has been shown to be highly efficacious in a clinical setting, pharmaceutical companies will aggressively market the product through their vast sales forces directly to physicians.

“Our ANVISA authorization has enabled us to move forward with a strategic and robust myHMB launch with two of the largest Brazilian pharmaceutical companies. Their sales forces, consisting of several thousand trained sales professionals, represent myHMB and its tremendous muscle health benefits in conversations with physicians and pharmacists every day.”

HMB is also a great complement to already popular musculoskeletal ingredients in Brazil such as collagen, glucosamine/chondroitin, and vitamin D. “Our brand partners like the synergistic consumer benefits with the addition of myHMB to their bone and joint products,” explains Kolb. “One customer’s sales are rapidly increasing, which validates a strong consumer need for total musculoskeletal health. When we educate consumers effectively through our brand partners’ physician sales force, they get it. It makes sense to them, and they feel motivated to take myHMB with their joint, bone products.”