Unlocking absorption: Interview with Aquanova AG

Live from SupplySide Global 2025, Nutritional Outlook Associate Editor Erin McEvoy interviews Aquanova AG's Frank Behnam and Danny Hofeditz where they discuss research on NovaSOL formulations for mobility and energy, as well as, inflammation.

Transcript

Erin McEvoy: Can you talk about the research you have underway for NovaSOL formulations on mobility and energy?

Danny Hofeditz: Yes, absolutely. So there's plenty of studies going on for us. It always has been a focus for Aqua Nova, the company, to invest heavily into generating research. We're doing so by doing human clinical trials.

At the moment, the past year has already brought, a couple of very interesting clinical trials on Astaxanthin, pretty sure, we have been talked about the Astaxanthin. So, I'll be focusing on, as I said, the mobility and energy part. First of all, for the mobility, will be the curcumin/boswellia both very synergistic and very interesting ingredients to combine. And in the past, we have been focusing on generating bioavailability data for these two ingredients, and what we're doing now is focusing on bioactivity. So, we're definitely adding another layer to showcase we're not only bioavailable so that the ingredients arrive in the blood plasma, but they also bring benefits in the human body. Specifically for the inflammation, right?

Everyone is suffering from inflammation on a daily basis, that it comes from smoking, just environmental impact, all these kind of things. And what we're doing with this specific study is that we're taking a look at subjects with elevated inflammation markers, and we are comparing our formulation so two times the NovaSOL formulations in different combinations with curcumin/bowsellia and vitamin D3 and comparing them to their native counterparts. To make sure we're comparing apples to apples. It's always the same ingredient levels, obviously. And we'll also include two competing formulations in the mix as well.

The study is designed to be 60 days of study duration in total, and it will be 12 subjects per study arm. And therefore we hope to see results by Q1 of next year. The three most important inflammation markers would be interlocking six, TNF alpha, as well as C reactive protein. And once again, so all participants and all subjects are suffering from elevated levels, and therefore we can track on what the different ingredients or the different ingredients and what the formulations can do for the levels. Whether it can be reduced over the course of the 60 days trial. That is the part for the mobility. There's also NovaSOL Q10. So we had investigated in the past.

There's a study out there from 2006 focusing on bioavailability, but we're once again taking a look at bioavailability for a different CoQ10 formulation, switching like a couple of the factors that have been done in the past already. Just add another layer, specifically for the meals that have been given in the past, in parallel to the subjects taking the supplementation is for the CoQ10, as it is true for pretty much any ingredient. If you're taking the supplements in combination with a fat-rich meal, the absorption characteristics will definitely be boosted.

What we're trying to do now is to showcase that independently of what the consumer is having as a meal or eating in parallel, we can, we can show increased absorption characteristics for our micellar structures by that therefore, we are doing the study under fasting conditions. Once again, we are comparing our NovaSOL Q10 to native Q10 as well as one competing product from the market. And that study, once again, is underway, so it's ongoing already, and we hope to see results by the end of this year. So once we have the results, we're more than happy to share information on that, keeping us most in the meeting.

Erin McEvoy: Can you tell me more about the white label program for the brands?

Frank Benham: Yeah, so what we're trying to do is basically expand our portfolio from B2B bulk to a finished product concept, because we want to enable our customers to save time, to have faster time to market. And given the fact that we already manufacture finished product formats. For example, for the customers in Asia, which is very successful, we deem it also appropriate to offer such formulas and finished product concepts to the US market, and we are partnering with a lot of the CMOS in the US and Europe. So we think we can make these products happen faster for customers which are looking for a fast way to go to the market. And this will be for the Curcumin, for the Coenzyme Q10, for the Astaxanthin, potentially Resveratrol, Quercetin, and we might open up a new portfolio saying, "These are the concepts. These are products ready to go." So just to bridge to B2B customers that look for their own label product in a faster manner.

Erin McEvoy: What are the advantages of the micellular technology?

Frank Benham: Well, actually it's the gold standard beyond the liposomes. So it's the natural way of encapsulating ingredients. Basically, while we're standing, we're producing micelles in our own body, and basically we're trying to mimic that in a production manner. And this is why we really are different from liposomes. It's ultra stable. It's very natural for the human body, and it's unique, also patented by Aquanova.

Danny Hofeditz:I may add to that. So just compared to the liposomal formulations and all the other formulations out there. Stability is a huge, huge issue for them. So once to make sure nutrients get absorbed, you need to pass through the gastric acid, which comes with a pH of around 1.1, so very, very acidic. And other formulations might suffer from these very acidic conditions, therefore the micellar structures definitely remain stable even going through the gastric system, therefore making sure pretty much everything of what you're consuming will get absorbed in the end.

McEvoy: All right, thank you. Thank you very much.