Food cravings often mean we often eat the wrong food or too much. Photo / Supplied
A New Zealand company plans to take on the multibillion-dollar obesity and weight-loss industry using an appetite suppressant made from hops. Jane Phare reports.
Auckland scientist Dr Edward Walker has spent the past 12 years studying bitterness in an effort to find a magic formula. He and his team at government-owned Plant & Food Research were looking for something that would take the edge off appetite and hunger cravings, and as a result help weight loss. And it appears they've cracked it.
The team knew from history that hunters in the Kalahari Desert would chew a type of cactus to suppress their hunger. And there were other stories, of people chewing bitter berries during times of famine.
What if, Walker's team pondered, they could find a natural plant extract in New Zealand that would not only curb appetite but help weight loss? Their aim was to control appetite by sending "bitter" signals to taste buds down in the gastrointestinal tract.
Backed by a $20 million grant from the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) in 2010, they set to work researching "foods for appetite control". The result, after testing more than 1000 different plant extracts, is Amarasate, developed from a type of hop grown only in New Zealand.
Enter Sarah Kennedy, the CEO of natural appetite suppressant Calocurb which has the exclusive international rights to the extract, paying a licence fee to Food & Plant Research. Her company is looking for a $5m capital raise with the aim of propelling Calocurb to the next level – recognition as a natural and clinically proven supplement that helps people lose weight without stringent diets. Around $1.5m of the raise will be spent on a clinical trial to prove just that.
The rest will be spent to market Calocurb in the lucrative US supplements market, with an aim of growing revenue to more than $100m in the next five years.
Clinical trials done by Plant & Food in 2019 and 2022 already proved Amarasate curbs appetite and calorie intake. The second trial, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in January, showed that Amarasate caused the release of three gastric hormones, most importantly GLP-1, designed to tell humans that tell you are full and it's time to stop eating. This next trial, which will take around 18 months to complete, is to prove that action also leads to weight loss.
Calocurb is already available in New Zealand, Australia and the US, and the company has sold 65,000 bottles to date. But armed with clinical evidence of weight loss, Kennedy aims to go up against big pharma in a crowded market, full of "psycho science and mistrust".
There's little wonder the market is so competitive. The weight management industry is currently worth more than $87 billion in the US, with pharmaceutical and supplement companies grappling for a share. By 2032, the US market alone is expected to be worth more than $435b; and more than $1262b globally.
And there's little doubt it will continue to be a growing market. The World Obesity Atlas estimates that one billion people globally – 1 in 5 women and 1 in 7 men – will be living with obesity by 2030.
Kennedy comes with the right credentials to take on the industry. She was CEO of Healtheries and Vitaco for 11 years until 2010, and did an MBA as a Sloan Fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston specialising in consumer behaviour, marketing and advanced finance. After returning to New Zealand, she became managing director of Fonterra's RD1 (now Farm Source), then Fonterra Nutrition and did a stint as the company's vice-president of international farming based in Beijing.
In addition, Kennedy admits she has had a "love-hate" relationship with food nearly all her life. In a world "drowning in calories" she has spent years either over-eating or not eating, snacking when she doesn't need to and generally feeling guilty or anxious about eating.
"I tried the diets and counting calories, hoping that something, anything, might fix the broken line between my brain and stomach."
She's taken Calocurb for the past four years and says it has changed her life.
"It has allowed me to regain what I'd call a healthy relationship with eating. I feel good about eating, can control my eating, I don't feel guilty about it."
The product is not a magic bullet, she says, but helps control hunger and calorie intake.
It turns out that humans have taste buds not only on their tongue but all the way down the gut. They're designed to alert us to whether or not something is good to eat. Calocurb, sealed in a slow-release capsule, is swallowed an hour before a meal and is designed to break down just as it is leaving the bottom of the stomach into the upper small intestine so there is no bitter taste.
That triggers the "stop eating" hormones, reducing hunger and food intake.
Walker is fizzing about the non-bitter pill and its ability to significantly increase levels of GLP-1.
"This was really exciting for everyone involved because GLP-1 not only reduces appetite, but has also been shown to be effective for long-term weight loss."
The wonders of the appetite suppressant hormone have induced pharmaceutical companies to invest heavily in developing synthetic GLP-1 treatments. Big pharma company Novo Nordisk has developed injectable products for weight management, including Wegovy, Ozempic and Saxenda which cost between $1740 and $2430 a month.
Since Wegovy was approved by the FDA last year sales have "gone ballistic", she says, with the global pharmaceutical company doubling its previous sales target by 2025 to $6.5b.
Kennedy points out Calocurb is a natural product and costs $104 a month for the capsule by comparison.
Walker: "Given our data on GLP-1, we believe we have a natural product that could have similar weight loss effects as the synthetic GLP-1 injectable."
Both Walker and Kennedy say the product could play a key role in New Zealand's obesity epidemic which costs the country around $2b a year in healthcare, and diabetes.
It's not just about weight loss, Walker says. In taking hunger craving away Amarasate allows for good food choices. Food cravings trigger people to overeat or eat the wrong types of food.
"So by taking that edge off your hunger and cravings you basically empower people to make healthy food decisions. That's something that lots of people struggle with regardless of whether they're overweight or not."
The industry faces challenges but hopes to bring newcomers and veterans together.