Investors

OptiBiotix Health Plc (AIM: OPTI), a life sciences business developing compounds to tackle obesity, high cholesterol and diabetes announces that it has filed three new patents. This increases the number of patents from five at listing to nine.

The new patents reflect the progress made in developing OptiBiotix's proprietary OptiBiotic® platform technology which generates novel oligosaccharides (carbohydrates that consists of a small number of sugars). Recent studies have:-

• Identified an oligosaccharide which has the potential to selectively increase the growth rate of Propionibacterium species. This bacterium produces propionate which has been shown to regulate appetite. This discovery adds to the 'toolbox' of approaches OptiBiotix is developing to manage weight gain
• Identified an oligosaccharide which enhances the growth rate of Lactobacillus plantarum. This is the species used in OptiBiotix's cholesterol product and provides the potential to accentuate growth of this strain and enhance product performance
• Improved the ability of the OptiBiotic® discovery platform to predict the likelihood of microbial strains to produce new oligosaccharide and identify novel structures. This creates the ability to screen a greater range of species and strains with the same resources

Patents for all these improvements have now been filed. The company believes these advances reduce technical risk and broadens the range of application, product, and partnering opportunities.

Stephen O'Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, commented: "We are pleased to announce the filing of these patents which protect the recent advances we have made in developing novel sugars with the potential to act as calorie free sweeteners and modulate the human microbiome to prevent, manage, and treat disease. We understand the discovery of a sugar fromPropionibacterium speciesis the first report to our knowledge and adds to our 'toolbox' of approaches to manage weight gain. We believe these patents will make a significant contribution to building a successful and sustainable business for our customers and shareholders'.

For further information, please contact:

About OptiBiotix - www.optibiotix.com

OptiBiotix was formed in March 2012 to develop compounds which modify the human microbiome - the collective genome of the microbes in the body - to prevent and manage human disease.

The aim of OptiBiotix is to discover and develop microbial strains, compounds and formulations, which modulate the human microbiome and can be used as food ingredients and supplements or active compounds for the prevention and management of human metabolic diseases, examples of which include obesity, cholesterol and lipid distribution and diabetes.

OptiBiotix has established a pipeline of microbiome modulators that can impact on lipid and cholesterol management, energy harvest and appetite suppression. The development pipeline is fuelled by its proprietary OptiScreen® and OptiBiotic® platform technologies designed to identify metabolic pathways and compounds that impact on human physiology and bring potential health benefits. These platforms are applicable across a wider range of other human diseases.