BlueOcean and Neptune amend licensing agreement

Published: 26-Mar-2015

The amendment to the license allows BlueOcean and its shrimp joint venture affiliate to produce and sell shrimp oil products extracted from an additional seven species of shrimp


BlueOcean NutraSciences Inc. announces the signing of an amendment to its exclusive worldwide, royalty bearing, non-transferable, License Agreement under Neptune's composition and extraction patents on the production and sale of marine derived oil products containing phospholipids.

In addition to the three species of northern coldwater shrimp that have already been granted in the license, the amendment to the license allows BlueOcean and its shrimp joint venture affiliate to produce and sell shrimp oil products extracted from an additional seven species of shrimp (Penaeus monodon, Penaeus indicus/Fenneropenaeus indicus, Penaeus vannamei, Metapenaeus dobsoni, Parapenaeopsis stylifera, Metapenaeus monoceros and Metapenaeus affinis), in the nutraceutical, dietary ingredients, natural health products, functional food and food supplements markets. The medical food, drugs and drug product markets are not included.

The additional species have varying amounts of essential compounds and will thus be marketed under two brands, Southern AstaShrimp, which will have over 1000ppm astaxanthin with phospholipids and omega-3s, and Pacific AstaShrimp, which will have more than 4000ppm astaxanthin with phospholipids and omega-3s.

There is an immediate supply of wild caught Indian and Indo-Pacific Ocean shrimp byproduct feedstock to produce 25MT of Southern AstaShrimp and a further 25MT of Pacific AstaShrimp oil in 2015, with a potential expansion of feedstock over the following years to produce 60MT of each of Southern and Pacific AstaShrimp oil.

It is important to note that the Indian and Indo-Pacific Ocean shrimp by-product are derived from wild-ocean caught shrimp and not from farmed or aquaculture raised shrimp as the ocean caught shrimp contain natural astaxanthin in esterified form versus farmed raised shrimp which contain synthetic astaxanthin in free form.

According to the Natural Astaxanthin Association, natural esterified astaxanthin, which ocean shrimp obtain from the algae they eat in the ocean, is beneficial to human health whereas farmed shrimp that are fed synthetic astaxanthin provide no benefits to human health owing to the differing molecular structures of esterified natural form versus free synthetic astaxanthin.

BlueOcean CEO, Gavin Bogle, said: 'The additional capacity of this shrimp feedstock to produce Southern and Pacific AstaShrimp oil adds new product offerings to our AstaShrimp oil line.'

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