SAN DIEGO—Cardium Therapeutics added a new weight-management product, Appexium™, to Cardium's MedPodium™ product line, broadening the company's advanced skin care line to include additional healthy lifestyle medicinals. Appexium, a plant-derived non-pregascription dietary supplement to be marketed under the trade name Linee™, is designed to manage weight by lowering appetite and hunger in order to reduce caloric intake and facilitate weight loss. Cardium is planning to formally launch its MedPodium product line in October.
Taken orally an hour before meals and snacks, iit s designed to physiologically send a satiety signal to the brain to effectively reduce appetite. Appexium's active ingredient is a highly-concentrated extract from white potato, standardized to Proteinase Inhibitor-II (PI-2), that promotes the release cholecystokinin (CCK), a natural peptide hormone secreted by the small intestine and released into the blood stream. CCK is a well-researched peptide that is believed to play an important role in modulating appetite and hunger. Appexium's custom formulation contains a blend of PI-2, vitamin D and vitamin B-12, which is filled into small, easy swallow, pharmaceutical-quality capsules.
Christopher J. Reinhard, chairman and chief executive officer of Cardium, stated: "We are pleased to announce the addition of Appexium to our MedPodium lifestyle medicinal brand initiative. Following our planned launch of the MedPodium product platform in October, which will initially include seven podiatry-focused advanced skin care products and Appexium, we plan to further broaden and expand our MedPodium brand initiative to encompass other lifestyle medicinals that may include neurologics, metabolics and aesthetics designed to address emerging lifestyle issues for highly-targeted market segments. Our products will initially be available through Cardium's MedPodium web-based boutique. Following market launch we also plan to market and sell certain products through various select distributors or retailers in the United States."