Provexis Limited was founded in 1999 to commercialise the Fruitflow® anti-thrombotic technology discovered at the Rowett Research Institute by Professor Asim Duttaroy.

Provexis plc was listed on the Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2005 with the stock symbol PXS.

Fruitflow is a patented, natural, breakthrough ingredient which helps with platelet aggregation. Fruitflow has been shown in human trials to reduce the propensity for aberrant blood clotting, typically associated with cardiovascular disease, which can lead to heart attack and stroke. The extract is available as a spray dried powder, and it can be included in a broad range of food, beverage and dietary supplement formats.

Fruitflow is a highly concentrated form of bioactives which is lycopene-free and contains over 30 known anti-platelet compounds. Published clinical studies have shown that Fruitflow works to maintain healthy blood flow in a similar way to 75mg aspirin but with a milder and reversible action; Fruitflow has a similar antiplatelet effect to a single dose of aspirin – but when taken daily, it has none of aspirin’s side effects. The science behind Fruitflow has been validated by leading peer review publications and regulatory authorities. Fruitflow is the only natural antiplatelet to have 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’.

Provexis entered into a long-term Alliance Agreement with DSM Nutritional Products (‘DSM’) in 2010 to commercialise Fruitflow through sales as an ingredient to brand owners in the food, beverage and dietary supplement categories. More than 100 regional consumer healthcare brands have now been launched by direct customers of DSM, and a number of further regional brands have been launched through DSM’s distributor channels.

Provexis sells a high quality dietary supplement product containing Fruitflow® and Omega-3 which is available to purchase from the Company’s subscription focused e-commerce website www.fruitflowplus.com, Amazon UK and Holland & Barrett.

In June 2022 Provexis announced it had secured two new agreements with DSM for Fruitflow, to replace the Alliance Agreement: (i) a Transfer of Business agreement and (ii) a Premix and Market-Ready Solutions supply agreement, which both took effect on 1 January 2023. DSM’s existing and prospective customers for Fruitflow as a straight ingredient transferred to become direct customers of Provexis from 1 January 2023, and Provexis took over the outsourced supply chain / production process for Fruitflow at that time.

Fruitflow has a number of specific health benefits which have been reflected in separate patent filings for the use of Fruitflow in:

• mitigating exercise-induced inflammation;
• managing blood pressure;
• 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; and
• conferring health benefits in modulating the gut microbiome of humans, to include a reduction in TMAO, following the completion of a successful human study which is further detailed at www.dsm.com/human-nutrition/en/talking-nutrition/press-releases/2023-01-20-new-study-reveals-dsms-fruitflow-activates-gut-heart.html.

A new partnership was agreed with DSM in June 2022 relating to the commercialisation of the gut microbiome patent, subject to certain milestones which have been agreed between the parties.

In November 2021 Provexis entered into a long-term supply and distribution agreement for Fruitflow with BYHEALTH Co., Ltd. (‘BYHEALTH’), a £2bn listed Chinese dietary supplement business, to support the planned launch of some Fruitflow based products in the Chinese market. The planned launch is progressing well with potential sales volumes remaining at a significant multiple of existing Fruitflow sales.

BYHEALTH has been working on an extensive regulatory submission to the Chinese State Administration for Market Regulation (the ‘SAMR’) seeking to establish a new permitted health function claim for foods such as Fruitflow that can demonstrate an anti-platelet effect.

In August 2023 the SAMR announced in China that the ‘Implementation Rules for Health Food New Functions and Product Technology Evaluation’ had been agreed by the SAMR in June 2023, and on 29 August 2023 BYHEALTH submitted: i) the first application under the Implementation Rules, seeking to obtain a new permitted health function claim for foods such as Fruitflow which help to ‘maintain normal platelet aggregation function and benefit blood flow health’; and ii) some related product registration applications.

BYHEALTH has noted that it has been working on the project since 2015, with ‘tens of millions of funds’ (RMB) invested by BYHEALTH in the research and development work.