HEALTHY drinks group Provexis is continuing to talk to global giants such as Coca-Cola about using its products.

The Liverpool firm has developed Fruitflow, a tomato-based drink that thins the blood and helps circulation. It was initially manufactured as a demonstration product called Sirco, but has yet to make a profit.

The company lost £4.5m in the year to March, 2009, compared with a loss of £1.1m the previous year. A goodwill write-off relating to an acquisition dating back to 2005 accounted for £3m of this year’s figure.

Stephen Moon, chief executive, said: “While the very difficult economic climate is affecting us and all companies in our sector, we continue to make progress.

“We are at an advanced stage of licence negotiations with a global ingredients manufacturer for the rights to our Fruitflow heart-health technology, as well as continuing to see interest from major brand owners. “Our Crohn’s Disease technology will enter clinical trial in the near future, and we continue to develop and explore other potential pipeline technologies.”

The company raised £2.7m in working capital in August and October, 2008, and, in addition, attracted DSM Venturing as a strategic investor.

Mr Moon added: “These are both positive endorsements of the quality of the business and also give us resilience to carry us through the downturn.”

The challenging conditions have resulted in some potential licence partners for the technology evaluating their position, but one partnership with Unilever has been discontinued.

Research and development activity continued with a spend of £651,000 in the year and administration costs of £967,000.

Discussions are taking place with a major dairy brand owner and the firm expects to remain in talks about the development of another product with Coca-Cola over the next few months.

BARRY TURNBULL