Provexis, the business that develops, licenses and sells the proprietary, scientifically-proven Fruitflow® heart-health functional food ingredient, is pleased to announce it has entered into a distribution agreement with a company (‘the Distributor’) which will act as the distributor for Fruitflow+ Omega-3 in China, exclusively through the Chinese Cross-Border e-commerce (‘CBEC’) channel.
CBEC regulations include a waiver of the existing Chinese pre-importation registration requirements on specified categories of products, permitting overseas exporters to sell consumer goods directly to Chinese consumers through certain registered e-commerce platforms.
The agreement announced today grants the Distributor exclusive rights to import, market and sell the Company’s Fruitflow+ Omega-3 dietary supplement product in China through the CBEC channel, with immediate effect. The Distributor will purchase Fruitflow+ Omega-3 as required from the Company, and the Distributor will then market and sell Fruitflow+ Omega-3 in China through its existing network of e-commerce and other sales channels.
Fruitflow+ Omega-3 is currently available to purchase from the Company’s e-commerce website www.fruitflowplus.com , Amazon UK and Holland & Barrett. Subscriber numbers on the fruitflowplus.com website have been growing steadily, and they currently stand at a further new all-time high level.
The Company has recently completed a redesign of the existing Fruitflow+ Omega-3 packaging, to include a new single blister pack format, with this new packaging having been optimised for sales through CBEC by the Distributor in China.
BYHEALTH Co., Ltd.
The Company has been working since 2016 with BYHEALTH Co., Ltd (‘By-Health’), a listed Chinese dietary supplement business valued at approximately £5bn, to support the planned launch of a number of Fruitflow based products in the Chinese market. The Company also has an open-ended collaboration agreement with By-Health which was announced in August 2019.
By-Health’s activities are driven at present by the need to obtain ‘blue cap’ health claim status for Fruitflow as a dietary supplement with the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation. By-Health has made a significant investment in nine separate studies in China, at its sole expense, in support of the Fruitflow based products which it plans to launch in China.
The distribution agreement announced today is separate but wholly complementary to the Company’s work with By-Health, with the CBEC regulations enabling the Distributor to sell Fruitflow+ Omega-3 in China now, prior to the blue cap health claim which By-Health is seeking to secure. If a successful blue cap health claim is achieved by By-Health for Fruitflow it would currently be expected to result in some significant orders for the product, potentially at a multiple of current total sales values.
The Chairman of By-Health, Mr Liang, referred to By-Health’s interest in and development of anti-platelet aggregation products in an important speech on 28 October 2020 marking By-Health’s 25th anniversary www.by-health.com/en/newsitem/36255 .
Fruitflow and Cardiovascular disease (CVD)
There are more than 290m people in China who are currently thought to have cardiovascular disease, a major public health issue for the country, and this upward trend is projected to continue (source: China cardiovascular diseases report 2018: an updated summary –
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7008101 ). CVD also remains the leading cause of death globally (source: WHO – Cardiovascular Diseases – www.who.int/health-topics/cardiovascular-diseases ).
Fruitflow is a natural, breakthrough antiplatelet ingredient that contributes to normal blood flow and circulation, which benefits cardiovascular health. The science behind Fruitflow has been validated by leading peer review publications and regulatory authorities, and the product remains the only natural antiplatelet to have secured a health claim approved by the European Food Safety Authority stating that 150mg of Fruitflow ‘helps maintain normal platelet aggregation, which contributes to healthy blood flow’.
Fruitflow has a number of other specific health benefits which have been reflected in separate patent filings for the use of Fruitflow in:
· mitigating exercise-induced inflammation;
· managing blood pressure; and
· protecting against the adverse effects of air pollution on the body’s cardiovascular system. Laboratory work has shown that Fruitflow can reduce the platelet activation caused by airborne particulate matter, such as that from diesel emissions, by approximately one third.
The Company believes that Fruitflow has the potential to play an important role in the Chinese cardiovascular health market, with many attributes of the product being particularly relevant for Chinese consumers.
Ian Ford, CEO of Provexis, commented:
‘We are delighted to announce this distribution agreement for Fruitflow+ Omega-3 in China through the CBEC channel, at a time of record online spending in China.
More than 290m people in China are now thought to have cardiovascular disease, an upward trend which is projected to continue. The Company’s Fruitflow+ Omega-3 product has a number of proven attributes which are expected to be particularly relevant for Chinese consumers, and these attributes will be promoted strongly by the Company’s new distributor.
The Company believes that Fruitflow has the potential to play an important role in the Chinese cardiovascular health market, and it looks forward to a long and successful association with its new distributor for Fruitflow+ Omega-3 in China, through the CBEC channel.’
