Renaissance Herbs: exploring new frontiers as Avesthagen.

After 18 years as a competitive, vertically integrated manufacturer and distributor of specialized nutraceutical ingredients, Renaissance Herbs, Chatsworth, CA, is poised for the future since merging with India-based Avesthagen in July last year.

As a result of the merger, Renaissance founder and CEO Alex Moffett became global director of the business, reporting to Dr. Villoo Morawala Patell, founder and managing director of Avesthagen.

"This was a highly synergistic move for both companies," said spokeswoman Lauren Clardy. "Renaissance Herbs has always strived to provide the highest quality bio-nutritionals and our strategy has been to develop a proprietary product line supported by rigorous science and demonstrated benefits. The company can now move to the next level with our extensive portfolio of clinically studied products geared toward the needs of populations with special health concerns."

Prior to becoming part of Avesthagen, Mr. Moffett used his experience in botany, phyto-pharmacology and traditional medicines to build several herbal businesses in South America, Thailand and India. Described as a pioneer in the introduction of nutraceutical ingredients such as Suma (Pfaffia paniculata), sapayul oil, cat's claw, kava kava, St. John's Wort, 5-HTP and Garcinia cambogia, Mr. Moffett has been acknowledged for significantly improving the quality of Ayurvedic extracts.

In 1994, Renaissance Herbs formed a wholly owned subsidiary, Dhanvantari Botanicals, in Bangalore, India. And 2002 proved to be a pivotal year with construction of a new 50,000-square-foot state-of-the-art manufacturing, research and development facility in Malur, India. This fully certified cGMP facility has won numerous awards. It was also one the first factories of its kind to achieve ISO 22000:2005 and "Certified Organic" processing status.

The Malur facility has also received recognition in the natural products industry for its environmentally sustainable construction and operation. In addition to its staff of research scientists, the company employs many indigenous people to harvest certain raw materials in the wild.

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Today, Renaissance is transitioning to the name of its parent company, Avesthagen, while offering a complete portfolio of herbal extracts and nutritional bioactives, including AmlaPure organic, Hibix, XanoMax, GojiMax organic, PomPlex, Banopta, Bonaphyte, BonaPure, Cincata, Smart-Chol, Isomate and HCA Active.

Due to the Renaissance Herbs acquisition, Avesthagen now employs more than 300 people worldwide and stands to gain access to key markets through Renaissance's long-standing relationships in Japan and the U.S.

"As the ultimate source of quality and safety control in a heavily scrutinized industry, suppliers hold many of the keys to industry growth," said Mr. Moffett. "One of Avesthagen's core competencies lies in its dedicated scientific staff, which has extensive international experience. Avesthagen's world-class laboratory facilities and 250 researchers allows us to take the next step in our evolution, providing customers with novel ingredients and products backed by a broad base of biotechnical capabilities, including phytoproteomic testing and bioinformatics."

Focused on moving forward, the company says it has begun business development activities for highly refined individual species of phytochemicals that hold sales potential as active pharmaceutical ingredients. Additionally, it will be introducing a collection of new ingredients for bone health, Syndrome X and blood sugar regulation.

"The raw material business model and the dietary supplement industry are very complex," Mr. Moffett noted. "There are many factors affecting sales growth and our schedule for completing activities that will secure operations, expand our sales and increase profitability. Having the correct working capital to evolve from where we are today is the biggest factor in achieving the full potential of our strategic business plan."

He also believes clinical validation of bioactives and the efficacy of botanical ingredients will drive the future of the industry.

"Avesthagen is in a strong position to lead," Ms. Clardy said. "Our mission now is to leverage our new company's tremendous scientific and research capacities into validated, commercially viable products for health and wellness."--S.M.

Avesthagen, Inc.

9588 Topanga Canyon Boulevard

Chatsworth, CA 91311

Telephone: 818-709-2411

Fax: 818-709-2414

E-mail: infousa@avesthagen.com

Website: www.avesthagen.com/usa