Winclove Probiotics develops next-generation probiotics platform to fast-track NPD

04 Jan 2021 --- Netherlands-based Winclove Probiotics is developing Novobiome, a new platform to bring human-derived, next-generation probiotics (NGPs) to the European market.

The company aims to generate €8 million (US$9.8 million) in turnover within the first five years of commercializing Novobiome.

Winclove notes that many major probiotic companies are now moving into the flourishing field of NGPs.

Traditional probiotics are mainly derived from non-human origins, but NGPs are human-derived and play a key role in overall human health.

However, NGP product development is exceedingly difficult due to the strict and complex nutritional requirements of anaerobic bacteria, the company explains. 

The Novobiome platform aims to resolve the most daunting obstacles to NGP product development and commercialization on the market. 

Rethinking next-generation probiotics
The new platform will cover the full cycle of NGP product development, an area that “requires radically new techniques for isolation, characterization, cultivation, production and delivery to the site of action,” according to the company. 

Support for the platform came from the European Innovation Council Pilot, which selected 287 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to receive a collective sum of €14.15 million (US$17.39 million) to share between their projects.

Of this amount, Winclove received €50,000 (US$61,493) in funding from the European Union in phase one of the project. 

While traditional probiotics are mainly derived from non-human origins, NGPs are human-derived and may play a key role in overall human health.Facilitating NGP NPD
The SME-1 instrument project has enabled Winclove Probiotics to identify an approach to the regulatory, manufacturing and commercial requirements of NGPs for its customers. 

NGPs will be developed as food supplements under the Novel Food regulatory framework.

The Novobiome platform allows the development of Winclove Probiotics’ own NGP products that are sold to worldwide business partners. 

In addition, Novobiome is an NGP product development platform that can be provided as a B2B service to companies active in this field.

A “highly promising” field
Winclove explains that the global probiotics market is flourishing and anticipated to grow substantially in the coming years. 

High growth potential is particularly “due to the highly promising application of NGPs as food supplements and live biotherapeutic products,” notes Winclove. 

In industry advancements of NGPs, the DuPont Human Microbiome Venture partnered with The Procter & Gamble Company to develop probiotic strains found in the human digestive tract last September. 

Gut health has also been pegged as a major industry trend for 2021 based on research from ADM’s Outside Voice insights platform. 

Experience in the field of probiotics
Winclove Probiotics’ approach leverages its already functional in-house facilities and infrastructure and combines it with models and technological methods that can fast-track the timeline of NGP products to market for partners. 

In collaboration with business and research partners, Winclove Probiotics’ develops evidence-based, medically endorsed, indication-specific probiotics. 

Winclove Probiotics provides its products and services to over 80 customers in 35 countries worldwide, including the European, Asian and American continents.

By Missy Green