Panacea BioMatx, a personalized nutrition startup company in Morrisville, has signed a license agreement with an Australian health food provider that will also invest up to $1 million in Panacea.
Existing North Carolina investors in Panacea, Worth Harris and MDO Ventures of Raleigh, have also agreed to match the investment on similar terms.
The company said in a news release that Sanitarium Health and Wellbeing Co. of Sydney, Australia, will license Panacea’s on-demand, automated personalized nutrition system for exclusive use in Australia and New Zealand. The patent-pending system uses data-driven robotic technology and a formulation process to enable high-speed production of nutritional products and formulation software services tailored to the specific health needs of each consumer.
“Sanitarium is keenly aware of the rapidly advancing science field of how genomic and variations in metabolism are factors in the nutritional and medical needs of individuals,” said Kevin Jackson, CEO of Sanitarium. “We foresee an era in which this knowledge combined with personalization technology will provide a new preventative path to wellness. This agreement with Panacea supports our participation in moving personalization from concept to economic availability.”
Supplements represent a huge market
More than 60 percent of the U.S. population takes at least one vitamin supplement a day, and nearly 30 million Americans take more than five supplements a day, Panacea said. However, taking too much of a supplement can cause negative reactions, and standard pre-packaged supplements may also contain ingredients that poorly interact with other supplements or medications the individual may be taking. Beyond that, swallowing multiple pills and keeping track of pill regimens can be challenging for the aging population.
Panacea said its “pill-free” system can deliver personalized formulas of vitamins, minerals, oils, or herbs, blended with a user-selected food, and delivered in convenient gel packets. With its cloud-based formulation software, optimal dosage of ingredients for an individual become a formula that is sent to its proprietary robotic system, which makes a 30-day supply on demand in minutes.
The company aims to integrate individual profile data, family history and eventually medical tests and genetic data that has been evidence correlated to nutritional needs and pharmaceutical interactions.
Collaboration propels the technology’s commercialization
Panacea CEO Edison Hudson said the collaboration with Sanitarium is key to commercializing the technology.
“Sanitarium is a century-old entity respected for their strong ethics and dedication to improving individual health,” he said. “Their foresight about the benefits of personalization for both nutrition and medicine led to our discussions over the past two years and to this agreement. We are elated to have such an outstanding global partner to help commercialize the enormous potential benefits of personalization.”
Sanitarium plans to pursue applications in Australia where its owner also operates Sydney Adventist Hospital.
Panacea said it is finalizing agreements with a major U.S. hospital group to jointly develop medical uses for individualized formulas that can address specific nutrient deficiencies as part of preventative therapy for their bariatric, oncology and cardiovascular patients.
Panacea an NCBiotech portfolio company
Panacea was co-founded in 2013 by Hudson, a serial technology entrepreneur, and L. Staton Noel III, a former GlaxoSmithKline executive who has been director of the Office of Innovation Commercialization at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro since 2011.
“This transaction represents a significant milestone for Panacea, creating a strategic partnership with Sanitarium and bringing in several new investors, said Joe Nixon, MBA, vice president of business and technology development with the North Carolina Biotechnology Center. “NCBiotech is pleased to see the Panacea team’s hard work rewarded in this way.”
The Center supported Panacea with a $75,000 Strategic Growth Loan in 2014 and three grants totaling $9,000 for summer internships during each of the last three years.
Sanitarium said it became a global leader in wellness and nutrition by promoting plant-based eating “before it became trendy” and offering wellbeing services throughout Australia under its Vitality Works brand. The company continues to be involved in the creation of breakfast foods, non-dairy beverages, spreads and a large variety of healthy plant-based foods.
Sanitarium said it plans to use its expertise in healthy foods to develop specialized applications for Panacea’s system.
(C) N.C. Biotechnology Center
