Expanding in HMOs
30 Nov 2018 | Jennewein Biotechnologie
At HiE 2018 in Frankfurt, NutritionInsight spoke with Christian Metzmacher of Jennewein Biotechnologie about the company's most recent work with human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs). “We invented a specific fermentation process to produce these HMOs. As it turned out, there's a huge demand so we increased our production capacities by about 300 percent in the past 18 months,” he says, adding that this demand is driven by a desire to bridge the gap between breastmilk and infant formula.
This is Rob Wires at the HAE in Frankfurt.
I'm here with Christian Metzmacher from Genuine Biotechnologies.
Christian, you have a very innovative process to produce HMOs.
What are HMOs and what's the, what's the process behind your production?
OK, we, we invented a specific fermentation process to produce these HMOs, and, , as it turned out, you know, there's a huge demand for it, and we increased our production capacities about 300%, within the last 18 months, which is a lot just to fulfill the need, of the market on the one hand.
And the needs of our customers.
What's driving this market demand then?
Where do you see the biggest opportunities?
The biggest opportunity is, they want all our customers want to close the gap between infant formula and mother's breast milk, obviously, and our HMOs are designed by nature.
They are within mother's breast milk, which separates them from, for example, Tross and Foss, which are not in mother's breast milk, Mother Nature.
And this is the driver, the main driver of it, you know, to mimic human profile on the one hand and get closer to human breast milk and infant formula.
Where do you see the biggest expansion opportunities both in terms of regionally and in terms of applications?
Yes, on the one hand, there's a huge demand in Asia, but we're not approved there.
But this will happen soon on the one hand, and on the other hand, you know, we're already approved in America, in the US and in Europe.
So they're currently, there's a huge demand for it in Europe, growing.
In the US it's already available for years, but in Asia, this will really, really be a huge progress for us, you know.
And what, what can we expect to see more from an R&D standpoint or the other things in the pipeline?
Where, where's your, where's your research and development focusing?
We started with the two of us and now we started our own clinical trial recently of the five most HMO, HMOs as a mix.
And we provide this commercialize this as a mix as a blend of the five HMOs.
And I think that's the next step, you know, just to close the gap between infant formula and, human breast.
And I guess there's a far bigger understanding amongst consumers around HMOs and their prominence.
Absolutely.
They're asking for it already, you know, and as you know many other brands now incorporate them into infant formula, it's gaining momentum, the HMOs in general.
Thank you very much, Christian.
You're welcome.
Thank you.
