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SBI Pharmaceuticals develops health food for pets and feed for livestock and aquaculture utilizing 5-ALA (5-aminolevulinic acid phosphate).
With recent developments in veterinary medicine and improvements in diet and environment, the life expectancy of pets such as dogs and cats has increased dramatically. In exchange however, lifestyle and age-related diseases similar to humans have become a major issue in pets. In response to requests from pet owners who wish to be with their dogs and cats, which they consider to be members of the family, as long as possible, we conduct research and development in health foods for pets. SBI Pharmaceutical has obtained detailed safety verification data through the development and sale of pharmaceuticals and human health foods. Based on our achievements to date, we are confident that use of our products while adhering to the dosage instructions will provide peace of mind.
In domestic livestock such as cattle, pigs and chickens, 5-ALA is used to synthesize heme, the same way as in humans (for more details, see the “About 5-ALA” section). Various effects such as improvement of litter size, weight (meat volume) increase and infectious disease prevention, are expected due to the versatile effects of 5-ALA. Heme is a component found in meat in the form of myoglobin (the pigment that makes meat look red), and unlike antibiotics and fattening hormones that remain in the meat, which have become an issue in recent years, it is not considered to be a threat to consumer health. With the cooperation of livestock farmers, we will continue to collect further data for commercialization and to supply products with our partner companies worldwide.
5-ALA is an essential component for various organisms and is used not only for livestock but also to increase production of marine resources. A team at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology found that feeding 5-ALA-containing diets to whiteleg shrimp, farmed widely throughout the world, stimulated immunity-related genes, increasing resistance to bacterial infection and promoting growth (Aquaculture Research. 2019; 50: 1131-1141).
Not limited to human health, but also for the rapidly increasing demand for food resources in response to the growing human world population, 5-ALA is expected to offer a critical solution in the future.