First joint-protecting milk Drink for sportspeople

It is now available, for the first ever, a milk drink that protects and improves joint health by using Mobilee™, an ingredient rich in hyaluronic acid, polyssacharides and collagen. It is a drink for sportspeople that improves their joints’ mobility when consumed on a regular basis. This new product, presented this morning in Madrid, is produced and marketed by Central Lechera Asturiana and Sport Life who have pooled their expertise in sports nutrition and healthcare to launch a new range of sports drinks. This milk product for joints comes out of the alliance between these two companies since Bioiberica is the first Spanish company to develop this ingredient for joint healthcare, Mobilee™.

It is estimated that in Spain there are more than 14 million sportspeople, and that up to 33 percent of them suffer from joint pain, mostly in their knees. Recent studies have concluded that running an average of 32 kilometers/week doubles the risk of suffering osteoarthritis before age 50. 

Sports involving repeated impacts, such as running or racket sports, cause micro trauma that ultimately degrade joint tissue, accelerating its wear and tear and causing pain. Our innovation department began considering what could be done to help sportspeople to prevent this degradation, and we thought that we could develop a new ingredient that could be added to daily consumption food”, explained Daniel Martínez, R&D director of Bioiberica’s Human Health area.

The company carried out four, randomized, double blind and placebo-controlled nutritional studies that concluded that consuming Mobilee™ on a daily basis improve the joints’ mechanic and muscular function and reduces pain in persons suffering from joint pain. The most recent of these articles appeared in July in the Genes & Nutrition journal and concluded that Mobilee™ supplementation reduces pain and synovial fluid loss, as well as improving knee mobility. In addition, the study showed that it modifies the expression of genes associated with joint and connective tissue. 

Furthermore, Bioiberica has carried out stability, security and toxicity studies that determined that this new ingredient is a safe, stable product that does not alter the smell nor the taste of the food it is being added to. 

The new Mobilee™-enriched milk drink for sportspeople is now possible because during the past month of September the EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) issued a favorable assessment about the security of adding this product to dairy products consumed on a daily basis. And, in the past December, the European Commission allowed its marketing as a Novel Food[1]. Simultaneously, a panel of independent American experts also determined that it is safe to add to an ample range of foods and drinks, granting it the status of self-affirmed GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) product. 

“Functional alimentation is now one of our strategic lines of research. We believe that we should approach joint problems from the pharmacology, but also from the personalized medicine and nutrition sides”, added Martínez. 

About Bioiberica
Bioiberica is a biotech company specialized in osteoarthritis and joint healthcare. For more than 30 years, we have researched, developed, produced and marketed chondroprotector drugs and active ingredients that improve the quality of life of people suffering from joint problems. Furthermore, it is the first non-Chinese heparin producer worldwide.         

[1] A novel food is any food or food ingredient that was not regularly used for human consumption within the European Community before May 15, 1997.  Rule 285/97 of the European Parliament and Council of January 27^th, 1997, set the procedures for the authorization of new foods and food ingredients.