Weight Loss Supplement Developed by Wayne State University Professors to Sell at Meijer Stores

I'm not sure that I will be an "early adopter" of the following weight loss pill, but if it works...

Weight Loss Supplement Developed by Wayne State University Professors to Sell at Meijer Stores
Safe and effective fiber-based Mirafit offers hope for tackling obesity in Midwest

DETROIT, Aug. 15, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- After years of research and testing, a dietary supplement developed by a pair of Wayne State University professors will now be made available to the public through Meijer stores in Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Kentucky. Mirafit is an all-natural, stimulant-free weight loss supplement derived from corn fiber, which does not contain allergens.

Mirafit was created by Joseph Artiss and Catherine Jen. Each Mirafit tablet taken with a meal can safely bind and remove nine grams of dietary fat or 81 fat calories, resulting in a reduction of approximately 3,500 calories per week, or the loss of one to one and a half pounds of body weight per week.

"Obesity and related medical conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and strokes have become epidemic," said Jen, one of the principals of ArtJen Complexus USA, LLC, the Wayne State spin-off company she founded with Artiss in 2009 to manufacture and distribute Mirafit. "As a novel research breakthrough with no unwanted side effects, Mirafit has the potential to make a critical difference in body weight and blood lipid management."

Meijer to sell Mirafit weight loss supplement

Jen, professor and chair of Wayne State's Department of Nutrition and Food Science, with Artiss, associate professor in the Department of Pathology in the School of Medicine, discovered the fat-binding effect of the fiber while conducting research on Type II diabetes. Laboratory rats consuming a high-fat diet with the Mirafit supplement stopped gaining extra weight and showed no diabetic symptoms.

ArtJen has since emerged as a university success story. After the Mirafit technology was licensed to ArtJen, the company joined Wayne State's research and technology park, TechTown, where Jen and Artiss evolved from scientists into scientists/entrepreneurs.

"We didn't know much about starting a company when Cathy and I founded ArtJen," Artiss admitted. "TechTown was instrumental in educating us about the process and providing the support and resources we needed to get Mirafit into the marketplace."

Artiss noted that TechTown's "entrepreneurial champions" coached them in key areas — applying for and securing funds, identifying strategic partners and executing ArtJen's business plan. TechTown went so far as sponsoring Jen and Artiss to participate in a selective entrepreneurial boot camp offered by a collaborating high-tech incubator, Ann Arbor Spark.

As a retail supplier for Meijer, ArtJen is now poised to extend Mirafit's retail distribution footprint to include thousands of consumers who want convenient access to the product for its health and weight-loss benefits.

About The Creators
Catherine Jen, Ph.D., FTOS is professor and chairwoman of the Department of Nutrition and Food Science at Wayne State University. She is conducting a federally funded study on childhood obesity and is on the steering committee of the Obesity Summit organized by the Department of Community Health for the State of Michigan.

Joseph Artiss, Ph.D., FACB, is associate professor of pathology in Wayne State University's School of Medicine. He is the author/co-author of 65 refereed articles, 15 review articles, eight chapters and 23 patents/patent applications.