BROOMFIELD - Medical food company Accera Inc. has more than doubled its staff and has launched a new patient study following a $34 million investment from Nestle Health Science SA in July.

Broomfield-based Accera makes the prescription food Axona, which is used to manage the metabolic processes associated with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease, according to company information. In July, the company announced that it had received an investment from Nestle, but did not disclose the amount.

Accera now has 30 employees, up from 13 in January when new chief executive Holger Kunze started. The expanded sales force is selling Axona throughout the United States, Kunze said.

Separately, about 500 Alzheimer's patients will be involved in the new double-blind, clinical study on Alzherimer's, Kunze said. Patients will be enrolled through 2013, he said. Results from the study are expected to be published by the end of 2015, he said.

"This will be a landmark study for us to continue to build evidence behind the glucose hypometabolism hypothesis," Kunze said.

Nestle Health Science is a wholly owned subsidiary of Switzerland-based Nestle SA. Luis Cantarell, president and CEO of Nestle Health, joined Accera's board of directors, as a result of the July investment.

Accera previously completed four clinical trials with similar compounds in elderly volunteers and in patients with memory impairment or mild to moderate Alzheimer's. In those trials, according to the company, patients receiving Axona for up to 90 days experienced cognitive improvement compared with those who received a placebo.