Keego Harbor Firm Launches Pilot Program for Dairy Cattle Disease

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Health Enhancement Products Inc., a Keego Harbor-based biotech firm, today launched a pilot program that assesses the effectiveness of a treatment for bovine mastitis, a health condition that affects milk production and costs American dairy producers almost $3 billion in milking losses annually.

“The plan is to have pilot program preliminary results by the end of August or early September and share that information with our animal health collaboration partner,” says Amy Steffek, director of research and development.

The company is also expanding its study regarding canine joint health to test whether or not its bioactive compounds are more effective than glucosamine and chondroitin — the most popular active ingredients in the canine joint health supplement market, says Andrew Dahl, president and CEO of Health Enhancement Products.

“We’d like to offer dog owners a viable alternative that can be more cost-effectively and safely administered for months, if not years, without any worries and also provide the additional benefit of a healthy immune system response,” Dahl says.

Dahl adds that joint health issues are predicted to affect about 20 percent of dogs, with the canine joint health supplement market currently generating about $300 million in annual sales in the U.S. alone.

Results from the glucosamine-chondroitin challenge experiment are expected in mid-to-late September.

The decision to move forward with the aforementioned studies follows an increase in credit through the company’s primary lender, which makes $1 million immediately available for studies under way in both the U.S. and Canada.

“This new infusion of capital funding will allow us to expedite the promising work in a broader set of studies and potentially move from research to licensing discussions as early as this fall,” Dahl says. “And, we view this latest investment and inquiries from equity capital investors as vote of confidence in our process and prospects.”