Revolutionary sports drink PREP’D to be launched by Flinders University commercial arm Flinders Partners
AFTER 20 years of research, Flinders Uni believes it has a gamechanger for the $17 billion global sports drink market — a low-sugar, revolutionary drink that rehydrates far faster than anything else.
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FLINDERS University is aiming for a share of the $17 billion global sports drink market, preparing to launch its game changing, low-sugar product early next year following 20 years of research.
The drink, called PREP’D, is being billed as a revolution for professional and amateur sportspeople alike, as well as for people doing physical jobs or working in extreme heat.
Consumers would take a “pre-load” drink up at least before physical activity, then a different recovery drink after for rapid rehydration.
The before and after products will likely be called PREP’D Prime and PREP’D Recover.
The key to their effectiveness is a special, food-grade resistant starch that maximises fluid absorption and boosts hydration potential by up to 30 per cent.
Another selling point is they will contain only a fraction of the sugar found in other sports drinks. The Recovery drink will have about a tenth of standard sugar levels in sports drinks, and the Prime drink slightly more.
“In an earlier clinical trial with the Adelaide Crows, PREP’D showed significantly better overall hydration compared with sports drinks and water,” said David Vincent, the manager of the uni’s commercialisation arm Flinders Partners.
“Despite the impact of dehydration on athletic performance being a well-understood problem in sports science, the formulation of sports drinks has barely advanced in the past 50 years.
“PREP’D changes all this by using resistant starch to increase the body’s hydration potential by up to 30 per cent, allowing athletes to perform at their peak for longer.”
The drink has been devised by gastrointestinal health expert Prof Graeme Young, along with Prof Ian Brown and collaborators from the US and India.
“Our research has shown the resistant starch in PREP’D promotes improved fluid absorption in the large intestine, unlocking a largely untapped hydration potential of up to five litres per day,” Prof Young said.
The State Government is providing $142,000 towards the product launch through its innovation agency TechInSA.
Mr Vincent said the grant would help reach the goal of raising at least $1 million in seed funding this year.
“We’re excited at the prospect of launching our products into the $17 billion global sports drink market in early 2018,” he said.