Croda, NourishLife Team Up on Apraxia Treatment

EDISON, N.J.—Croda announced it partnered with NourishLife to create a nutritional treatment for the neurological disorder apraxia. The final formulation will use Croda’s pharmaceutical-grade omega-3 oil and be based upon the therapeutic treatment of apraxia patent recently licensed to NourishLife by the Children’s Hospital & Research Center in Oakland, Calif.

Apraxia is a neurological disorder characterized by the inability to perform purposeful motor movements, despite having the desire and physical ability to perform the movements. Verbal apraxia affects the ability to produce normal sounds needed for speech. Experts believe the number of cases is increasing of this previously rare condition. It is estimated that 50 percent of autistic children have verbal apraxia, yet not all children with verbal apraxia have autism.

David Shannon, sales director, Croda Health Care, said: “We are pleased to have the opportunity to work closely with NourishLife in the supply of our purified and concentrated omega-3 product for their omega-3/antioxidant formulation for apraxia. This oil is the finest in the world, manufactured under strict quality-control procedures at our pharmaceutical-certified facility in the United Kingdom and branded under PureMax™. We are excited to be part of this venture and look forward to helping families with this remarkable product.”

Roy Bingham, co-founder of NourishLife stated: “We are pleased to work closely with Croda. I have personally inspected their UK plant and it is clear to me that they are a first rate manufacturer with extremely good quality control, high standards and drug-approval status. With Croda’s history as the developer of ‘Lorenzo’s Oil’, they have again demonstrated great technical prowess and innovative skills.”

Steve Mellor, technical manager at Croda and chairman of the GOED (Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3) technical committee, said: “The development of Lorenzo’s oil in the early 1980s enabled Croda to develop expertise in the manufacture of essential fatty acids for disease management. In the mid 1990s, Croda built a state of the art manufacturing facility in the UK which has recently been audited and approved by the MHRA enabling Croda to offer eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) concentrates manufactured to the highest pharmaceutical GMP standards. There has been significant research conducted on these fatty acids over the years showing their benefits in the management of various disease conditions enabling companies, such as this current partnership with NourishLife, to develop condition specific products and offer the consumer more targeted treatments than before."

The apraxia patented treatment formulation was developed by Claudia R. Morris, M.D., a pediatric emergency medicine physician and inventor of the nutritional apraxia cocktail. “We have promising observations of improved speech and coordination from hundreds of parents of children with verbal apraxia when consuming my omega-3/antioxidant-based formulation,” Morris said. “This warrants validation through controlled clinical trials and I have designed a protocol for an interventional trial that will use my patented formulation produced by NourishLife in partnership with Croda.”

Bingham added: “The anecdotal evidence reported by a large number of parents [of children with apraxia] is encouraging. Of course, we cannot expect this formulation to help every child. But it appears that a significant percentage of those being supplemented with an omega-3/antioxidant cocktail are experiencing positive results.”