Superba krill oil in Schiff MegaRed product

The biotechnology company Aker BioMarine signed an agreement to be the exclusive supplier of the company’s Superba Krill Oil dietary supplement to the market leader Schiff Nutrition International. The agreement is a major breakthrough for Aker BioMarine in the US market. Hallvard Muri, Aker BioMarine’s President and CEO says “Schiff Nutrition has chosen Aker BioMarine as its exclusive krill oil supplier. This means that Superba will be found in thousands of stores in the rapidly growing US market for omega-3 products." Superba Krill Oil will be the branded ingredient in MegaRed, a Schiff Nutrition product. Schiff MegaRed is a successful krill-oil-based omega-3 product and one of the fastest growing omega-3 products in the US market. Mega Red is available in most mass market retailers throughout the United States. “We are impressed by Aker BioMarine's quality and technical capabilities, as evidenced by its EcoHarvesting™ technique of Antarctic krill,” says Bruce Wood, President and CEO of Schiff Nutrition International. “Aker BioMarine controls every step in the value chain and provides complete traceability of the raw material, supported by detailed documentation of every processing stage. This gives us confidence in Aker BioMarine’s quality, supply reliability, and sustainability, all critical factors for selection as a Schiff Nutrition supplier. We look forward to a productive, long-term cooperative relationship with Aker BioMarine.”

Aker BioMarine ASA uses proprietary EcoHarvesting technology to sustainably harvest Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). Aker BioMarine develops, manufactures, and markets Superba Krill − high-quality phospholipid-bound omega-3 krill-derived nutraceutical products. The company also offers Qrill − a krill-derived functional feed that has been demonstrated to significantly promote health and growth in various farmed fish and shrimp species. Aker BioMarine ASA is owned 82% by Aker ASA. Founded in 1841, Aker controls companies with an aggregate of 26,500 employees and more than USD 10 billion of revenues in 2008.

A new study performed for the biotechnology company Aker BioMarine has demonstrated that Superba Krill Oil might be of benefit in individuals with metabolic syndrome and fatty liver. These results are important because they confirm previous findings. In the pre-clinical study, feeding mice a high-fat diet led to a significant increase in the amount of fat and cholesterol in the liver. A control group was fed a low-fat diet. The food supplement Superba Krill Oil, which is rich in omega-3 phospholipids, significantly reduced fat and cholesterol in the liver of mice fed the high-fat diet. It is significant that Superba Krill Oil had a beneficial effect on fatty liver and cholesterol in our experimental animals, said Dr. Jeffrey Cohn. He was leader of the study that was performed by the internationally acknowledged research group in Australia. Moreover, the results showed that Superba Krill Oil reduced the level of cholesterol in the blood. Mice fed the high-fat diet had a 65% increase in cholesterol level relative to mice fed the low-fat diet. Addition of Superba Krill Oil decreased the amount of cholesterol to a ”normal level” in mice fed the high-fat diet.Aker BioMarine has in this study documented the effects of Superba Krill Oil in cooperation with a leading research team in the scientific field. This study confirms previous findings published in June 2009, and shows that Superba Krill Oil might have beneficial effects in persons with metabolic syndrome and that Superba Krill Oil might have beneficial effects on the cholesterol level, says M.D. Hogne Vik, EVP, Documentation, Aker BioMarine.