The Akkermansia CompanyTM
Founded as A-Mansia Biotech S.A. in 2016 and changing its name to The Akkermansia Company in 2022, by Professor Patrice Cani, Université Catholique Louvain, Belgium, and Professor Willem M. de Vos, Wageningen University, the Netherlands, to further develop the next generation bacterium Akkermansia.
In 2004 Akkermansia muciniphila was discovered and characterized by professor de Vos and his team. Since 2008, both the teams of professor Cani and professor de Vos have collaborated in explorating the biological potential of live and pasteurized A. muciniphila in health and disease. This led to many original publications in high-ranking peer-reviewed journals, e.g. Nature Medicine 2017 by Plovier et al, Nature Medicine 2019 by Depommier et al., as well as reviews, e.g. Nature Review Gastroenterology Hepatology 2022 by Cani et al.
In 2021 the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) delivered an opinion that pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila is safe for use as a novel food in the European Union. EFSA described A. muciniphila as a “well‐characterised non‐toxin producing, avirulent microorganism that has been reported as part of normal gut microbiota” and determined based on a literature review that its safety is adequate for use as a food supplement or in foods for special medical purposes, at a specified maximum dose.
Role within IMMEDIATE
Apart from support to other work packages, The Akkermansia Company is mainly providing support to the interventional human study by supplying pasteurized Akkermansia muciniphila and placebo product as well as by defining the level of Akkermansia and total bacteria in fecal samples from the interventional and the observational, large prospective studies.
