BIO 2010: Marinova shares sea’s bounty

This feature appeared in the March/April 2010 issue of Australian Life Scientist. To subscribe to the magazine, go here.

The sight of brown seaweed is not one that would normally have people seeing dollar signs, but for Hobart-based Marinova, its solvent-free technique for extracting the coveted element fucoidan from an introduced species of sea-flora in Tasmania has made it one of Australia’s most promising up and coming biotechs.

Fucoidan is essentially a sugar molecule with lots of sulphates, but with the unique quality of having very low toxicity at the same time as having very high bioactivity. For centuries various Asian cultures have been wise to the health benefits of fucoidan, in particular for its anti-aging properties. The compound is a common ingredient in modern cosmetics and is known to increase skin elasticity and smoothness while working to reduce blotchiness and the depth of wrinkles.

Several species of brown seaweed are rich in fucoidan, including wakami, a key ingredient in miso soup. Native to waters off the coast of Japan, wakami was introduced to Tasmania many years ago by Japanese container ships entering the Port of Hobart.

Marinova has a license from the state government to harvest wakami, which it processes at its state of the art facility in Cambridge. The process is entirely water-based, using no solvents, making the company’s product, Maritech Extract, one of the most pure on the market.

Formed in the mid-1990s and incorporated in 2003, Marinova now employs about 15 full time staff, with as many as 40 additional workers joining the company during the November harvest season. Most of the company’s $4.5 million in annual sales are currently derived from the cosmetics and nutraceutical industries.

Over the past few years, however, studies by the company and several other organisations have shown the effectiveness of fucoidan in treating a range of serious health conditions from heart disease to herpes, the flu and osteoarthritis.

Last year the company trialled two groups of osteoarthritis sufferers with different doses of Maritech Extract. Subjects receiving daily doses of 100 milligrams saw a 22 per cent improvement in their symptoms, while those receiving 1 gram experienced improvements averaging over 50 per cent.

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“Fucoidan is highly dose dependent,” says Marinova senior scientist and co-chief of the study, Dr Helen Fitton. “That way you know there’s a real activity.”

Also overseeing the study, Marinova’s head of products and innovation, Dr Vicki Gardiner, says that the company is now in early stage discussions with a number of potential partners interested in developing an anti-inflammatory drug for osteoarthritis based on fucoidan.

If successful it will be the first non-animal derived anti-inflammatory on the market, competing with glucosamine and chondroitin, both of which are derived from mammals or marine creatures.

Other trials have focussed on the previously demonstrated anti-herpetic properties of Maritech extracts, and research is currently underway to evaluate their anti-viral properties against a range of infectious agents including herpes and flu.

Marinova also says that its Maritech Extract products have been demonstrated to have important anticoagulant properties, leading to better circulation and overall cardiovascular health. “We have mutliple revenue streams,” says Gardiner.

A promising new area for Marinova is the aquaculture market. At the Asia- Pacific Aquaculture 2009 conference held in Kuala Lumpur late last year, Marinova presented findings from a study linking its proprietary macro algae blend to faster growth and better overall health of farmed prawns.

Gardiner says that Marinova has emerged from the global financial crisis relatively unscathed, in large part due to its high level of vertical integration from the harvest of raw materials to commercial product.

She adds that the company may have also benefited from the so-called ‘lipstick effect,’ whereby people facing the stress of a crisis seek to make themselves feel better. “The onset of the GFC led to more enquiries about our product than we’d ever experienced in the past.”

But while the future certainly looks bright for Marinova, Fitton admits that increased competition from Chinese companies offering cheaper products reinforces the need for vigilance when it comes to ensuring the purity of its own offerings.

“We’ve had to be more competitive,” she says. “Being Australian we can’t compete on price with the Chinese.”

This feature appeared in the March/April 2010 issue of Australian Life Scientist. To subscribe to the magazine, go here.