BioGaia eyes probiotic portfolio expansion with new fermentation plant

30 Aug 2022 --- Sweden-based healthcare company, BioGaia and its subsidiary MetaboGen are opening a new plant in Eslöv, Sweden, to produce new probiotic strains. The new fermentation plant will allow the company to bring new strains forward for clinical trials with the goal of placing them on the market.

“This capability and capacity will make BioGaia less dependent on external probiotic strain development,” Sara Malcus, CEO of MetaboGen tells NutritionInsight. “In the future, BioGaia/MetaboGen will be in a much stronger position to develop its own, new probiotic strains as well as supply the strains to clinical trials.”

“The pilot facility gives us fantastic opportunities to develop and manufacture our new products under the special conditions that the strains require,” Malcus explains. “I am really looking forward to this new phase where we will take a big step toward the commercialization of new products.”

Expanding portfolioThe new facility will support new and specialized fermentation processes for launching new strains of probiotics.
The plant’s opening enables BioGaia to expand its already extensive portfolio of probiotics. The move comes following a reported 24% organic growth for Q1 compared to the same period in 2021. The company also reported the equivalent of US$10.7 million in profit, a 51% increase over Q1 of 2021. Furthermore, it reported a 42% sales increase and a 44% profit increase totaling US$7.7 million in Q2 of this year.

The facility will support a range of fermentation methods, allowing for the fermentation of traditional lactobacilli strains as well as oxygen-sensitive ones. According to Innova Market Insights, probiotics are a driving force across a number of markets, including mood, immunity and digestion. 

Moreover, Innova has found that, following the COVID-19 pandemic, probiotics, and specifically lactobacilli-based probiotics, held sway with younger consumers as they have been found to improve sleep and rest and reduce stress and anxiety.

Malcus states the new facility allows BioGaia to produce “Various strains with specific capabilities and benefits, both more traditional lactobacilli and novel strains, such as the strict anaerobes in our pipeline.”

“We predict benefits for the oxygen-sensitive strains in our pipeline in people at risk for metabolic disease, for example,” she continues.

Controlling the processBioGaia reported 24% organic growth of 2021 in Q1 of this year.
BioGaia states that in order to develop the next generation of probiotics, they will need to meet the special conditions and tackle the technical solutions necessary to produce them. Both BioGaia and MetaboGen tout their new specialized and automated plant in Eslöv as being up to those challenges.

BioGaia states that the new facility will give them access and control to the entire process of development – from the first stages of production to the scale manufacturing pilot phase. This permits the company to control the entire manufacturing leading up to clinical trials and studies as well as the development, manufacturing and launching of new and possibly novel products.

“For a company whose core is clinically-tested probiotics of the highest standard, the expectation is that this new technology helps BioGaia continue to be at the forefront of new product formulations,” says Isabelle Ducellier, President and CEO of BioGaia.

“In the near future, we will manufacture different strains for our clinical programs, and run yet other ones through process development activities, using our pilot plant,” concludes Malcus.

By William Bradford Nichols