OptiBiotix Health (LON:OPTI) has inked an agreement with a renowned compound analysis centre in Madrid, which furthers its work on developing novel sugars.
It will lead to human testing of compounds to combat such diseases as diabetes and heart disease.
The agreement is aimed at progressing the group's pipeline of novel oligosaccharides (carbohydrates that consist of a small number of sugars).
The Instituto de Química Orgánica Genera (IQOG) has been contracted to, among other things, scale up the pipeline of oligosaccharides identified by the OptiBiotic technology platform and purify them to the desired level for lab testing.
Oligosaccharides showing commercial potential will commence human studies in 2016, OptiBiotix said.
OptiBiotix chief Stephen O'Hara said: "The last few months have seen substantial progress in reducing the technical risks associated with this exciting programme designed to create low calorie, sweet oligosaccharides, which could be used to reduce chronic lifestyle disease such as heart disease, obesity and diabetes.
"If successful, this work creates the opportunity to replace 'unhealthy' sugars in many food products with oligosaccharides which can improve health, and herald a new paradigm in the food industry.
"We are particularly pleased that international commercial partners have recognised the opportunity presented by this work and are including their own strains in the final stages of this development programme."
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