Objective
Over Active Bladder (OAB) is a syndrome characterized by several urinary symptoms, like urgency and nocturia. Prevalence is >10% of the population, 500 million people worldwide, and increases with age (>30% over 75 years old). OAB has psychological consequences such as embarrassment, impaired social interactions, depression and anxiety. Current pharmacological treatments for OAB are associated with multiple side effects and 80% dropout rates within 1 year.
At Saga Natura we have developed NO-GO, a natural product for improving OAB symptoms, made from the leaves of the Icelandic plant Angelica archangelica.
NO-GO’s precursor SagaPro was launched on the market in 2005, becoming Iceland’s top-selling non-prescription urinary product. We have performed in vivo and in vitro characterization of SagaPro’s bladder relaxing effect and we have clinically validated SagaPro in a small-scale clinical trial on 66 OAB patients, demonstrating it’s efficiency and safety.
In Phase 2 we want to fine-tune our formulation, increase and internalize our production capacity complying with ISO and GMP standards and extend our clinical validation. We will also regulate NO-GO through the EFSA to obtain health claims. This way we will be prepared for our product’s mass expansion in Europe and in North America starting in 2021.
This project will create 21 new jobs and profits of €108 Million with ROI of 16.6 after 5 years on the market. End-users will benefit from improvement of symptoms, no side effects, and ability to lead a normal every day life. Doctors will be able to recommend NO-GO to their OAB patients, a product with no side effects, and healthcare bodies will save costs on expensive OAB prescription drugs with too high dropout rates.
Finally, with our sustainable approach for cultivating Angelica archangelica we will seize this business opportunity while also preserving the Icelandic landscape, using natural resources and minimizing the impact to the ecosystem.
Field of science
- /social sciences/economics and business/business and management/commerce
Programme(s)
Call for proposal
H2020-SMEInst-2018-2020-2
See other projects for this call
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
221 Hafnarfjordur
Iceland
