Your body depends on trillions of little bacteria to help you digest your food and keep your immune system ticking along. Trouble is, stress, illness and diet can reduce the numbers of those bacteria and throw your body out of whack.
Consequently, a whole new industry called probiotics has sprung up to restore the bacterial balance of your body. And Mayfield Heights-based
Ganeden Biotech has emerged as a leader.
Formed in 1997, Ganeden sprang from research that identified a new family of bacterial strains with unique properties, says Mike Bush, the company's VP of business development.
In 2001, the company moved its headquarters from La Jolla, Calif., to northeastern Ohio. By 2003, Ganeden had launched a number of over-the-counter products and in 2006 began licensing its bacteria to other firms.
Today, Ganeden's Digestive Advantage and Sustenex products are sold in 55,000 stores around the country, making the firm the largest or second largest seller of over the counter probiotics at any given time, Bush says. Not only will you find Ganeden's products at your neighborhood grocery, but its patented flagship strain -- GanedenBC
30 -- is being used in everything from dairy products to oatmeal � even your tea and muffins.
How can bacteria survive the heat required to bake a muffin? Bush says the GanedenBC
30 strain is introduced into consumables as spores, which are heat resistant and more stable than cultured bacteria like that in yogurt.
"It germinates once it gets into the human body," Bush explains.
Ganedan recently announced a partnership with the Agostoni Chocolate, of Italy, to market a probiotics chocolate disk.
Meanwhile, the company continues to grow within a market that Bush says could become a $19-billion industry by 2015. He says the company's over-the-counter sales are growing at 30 percent a year and its licensing operations are moving at a 100 percent annual clip.
The company has 30 employees, 25 of whom are located in the Cleveland area. It also operates an R&D facility in Miami, Fla.
Source: Mike Bush, Ganeden Biotech
Writer: Gene Monteith