The objective is to combine BioGaia’s expertise in the field of probiotic bacteria and applications technologies with SCA’s distribution network and know-how in the area of hygiene products. One example of a research area is the potential of probiotic bacteria to prevent urinary tract infections, which is very common among women suffering from incontinence.“Probiotic bacteria are microorganisms that confer various types of health benefits. SCA is already active in this area and holds a number of interesting patents. By applying BioGaia’s work methods, we hope to transform these concepts into commercially viable products,” says Ingela Torstensson, head of global research for SCA’s hygiene products.The agreement enables the companies to share know-how in related areas, but from completely different perspectives.SCA is one of the largest companies in personal care products, with the Libresse and TENA brands. As global market leader for incontinence products, Ingela Torstensson believes that it is particularly relevant for SCA to pursue development beyond the current work boundaries:“The cooperation is a good example of open innovation, which in this case means that we take ideas from our own company and identify an external environment that offers optimal development potential. It is clear that we have complementary expertise and, given our knowledge of innovation programmes, it would not be surprising if we were to achieve results in entirely unexpected areas.”BioGaia is a Swedish biotechnology company, world leader in probiotics, that develops and sells probiotic products and solutions that promote people’s health."It is extremely exciting to see what this collaboration can give, since both partners can contribute with both know-how and patented technologies and their own distribution networks. We are highly impressed with SCA´s ambitions in the hygiene area, and our hope is that we shall be able to develop new products that can be sold in relatively large volumes through SCA´s distribution net as well as more specialized products for our own distributors," says Peter Rothschild, President of BioGaia.