Unilever and Phytopharm Abandon Hoodia Weight Loss Product

When this story came across my computer earlier this week (the week of November 24, 2008) I had to read it twice. I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Phytopharm, a British pharmaceutical company, has the exclusive patent on P57, the active ingredient in hoodia gordonii responsible for its appetite suppressing abilities. They partnered with Unilever, the company behind the well known Slim Fast brand, back in December 2004.

Over the past four years they have spent millions of dollars in hoodia research to bring a commercial hoodia supplement to the market. Many speculated hoodia would be found in the popular Slim Fast products. This was going to be a major development in the hoodia industry because with their exclusive patent on the P57, it was believed they were on track to develop the most effective hoodia appetite suppressant available. Better yet, it was likely to be available as a main stream weight loss product and it was believed they would have substantial clinical research to back up its effectiveness.

Unilever has now announced that they are abandoning their plans to develop a hoodia-based weight loss product and they are discussing the terms of termination with Phytopharm. According to a press release issued by Phytopharm, data from a recent clinical study using hoodia extract in a drink-based product led Unilever to conclude that it is unsuitable to move forward with the product concept.

Alistair Taylor, chairman of Phytopharm, said, “Over the past four years we have generated a considerable body of pre-clinical and clinical data on hoodia with Unilever. Whilst hoodia has not been found to be suited for a Unilever branded product, we have compiled a substantial dataset which will allow us to explore alternative product formats for the commercialization of hoodia. We will now take further steps to build on this foundation and seek other partners to further develop hoodia and bring this exciting opportunity to market.”

Looking back, the writing was on the wall for this major announcement. A few months ago I wrote how Phytopharm had reported they were satisfied with the progress of their hoodia gordonii extract development with Unilever. However, the two companies weren’t looking to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration GRAS until late 2009. They also warned that the approval process could be lengthy because its products may not meet the necessary requirements.

I concluded in that article that we probably won’t see a hoodia weight loss product from Unilever anytime soon – probably not until 2012 at the earliest. It turns out that not only will we not see a hoodia weight loss product from them until 2012, we’ll never see one!

This latest development produces more questions than answers. What were the exact results of this latest clinical study that led Unilever to believe hoodia extract in a drink-based product was unsuitable to pursue anymore? Does a drink-based hoodia extract product simply not work, or was it effective but just too expensive to develop? Does hoodia extract itself work? Maybe given the state of the economy Unilever believed their time and money was better spent on more profitable ventures.

I wish I had access to Unilever or Phytopharm to get more answers! We’ll probably never really know why they made this decision. What we do know is that a mass-market, highly effective hoodia extract product won’t be hitting the shelves anytime soon – if ever. I guess now we sit back and wait to see what Phytopharm does next.

Resource: NutraceuticalsWorld.com