Confectioner Mars will today (Monday) unveil research showing that cocoa compounds could help treat diabetes, strokes and vascular disease, according to the Financial Times.

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The findings, to be presented at a conference in Switzerland, hold out the prospect of a major new class of medications, the paper said. Mars has discovered how to replicate the cocoa compounds or flavanols. It is in discussions with pharmaceutical companies about licensing production of synthesised flavanols.


“The mounting evidence in cocoa flavanols is extraordinary,” said Norm Hollenberg, professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, which shared some of the research with Mars. “This is a scientific breakthrough that could well lead to a medical breakthrough.”


“We have a valuable asset that’s not just about food, it’s about the pharmaceutical sector,” Mars chief science officer Harold Schmitz told the Financial Times. 

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