The jury honors Dr. oec. troph. Sandra Habicht’s work entitled “Effects of Coenzyme Q10 supplementation on myopathy in statin-treated patients: a systematic review and metaanalysis”. Statins are widely used medicinal products for lowering hypercholesterolemia and preventing cardiovascular diseases. One of their side-effects is statin-associated muscle symptoms (SAMS) associated with mitochondrial dysfunction and micronutrient depletion.
One of the causal mechanisms for the development of SAMS is the statin-induced reduction of coenzyme Q10 levels. Coenzyme Q10 plays a central role as an electron transporter in the respiratory chain of mitochondria. It’s disturbance due to low coenzyme Q10 levels can lead to mitochondrial dysfunction resulting in the development of myopathic symptoms. Dr. Habicht showed in her meta-analysis that coenzyme Q10 supplementation can reduce muscle pain in patients with SAMS and thereby highlights the clinical relevance of the results with the potential to improve quality of life of patients taking commonly used statins.

In addition, a Special Prize for Personalized Diagnostics is awarded to Prof. Dr. med. habil. FRCPA Markus Herrmann for his work “Functional Assessment of Vitamin D Status by a Novel Metabolic Approach: The Low Vitamin D Profile Concept.” Prof. Herrmann showed that a personalized assessment of patient vitamin D status offers superior diagnostic specificity as the current clinical practice incompletely reflects biology. The use of LC-MS/MS instead of immunoassays offers excellent comparability of results between laboratories and can measure further vitamin D metabolites. Hence, Prof. Herrmann could demonstrate that patients with a low vitamin D metabolite profile are characterized by a substantially accelerated bone metabolism and increased all-cause mortality, regardless of the standard clinical measurement of 25(OH)D concentration. The jury honors this research work on vitamin D and its impact on bone health and mortality, as it is highly relevant for advancing personalized diagnostics in mineral metabolism.

Promotion of Biofactors Research

The Dr. Fritz-Wörwag Research Prize was awarded for the 11th time this year. Established by company founder Dr. Fritz Wörwag, the prize aims to encourage and support scientific research in the field of biofactors. The prize winners are selected by an independent scientific jury.

Biofactors are substances required to sustain the normal physiological activity in the body and/or with health-beneficial and/or disease-preventive biological activities. Biofactors comprise vitamins, minerals, amino acids, peptides, enzymes, fatty acids, phytochemicals, and similar compounds.

Wörwag Pharma has established itself as specialist for biofactors. The Böblingen-based company is globally active in developing and delivering customer-centric, highly effective solutions with biofactors to prevent and treat lifestyle diseases. Therapy areas comprise diabetes and associated diseases, the nervous system, musculoskeletal disorders, and support of the immune system.