OptiBiotix Health Regulatory News (OPTI)

OptiBiotix Health plc

("OptiBiotix" or the "Company" or the "Group")

SweetBiotix® Overview and Update

OptiBiotix Health plc (AIM: OPTI, OTCQB: OPTBF), a life sciences business developing products which reduce hunger and food cravings, enhance the gut microbiome, and sweet fibres as healthy sugar substitutes provides an overview and update on its SweetBiotix® product range for new and existing investors.

What are SweetBiotix®?

SweetBiotix® are a portfolio of natural, sweet, high fibre, low-calorie products developed to replace sugar and sugar substitutes. They are produced using a patented technology developed by OptiBiotix which enzymatically modifies existing natural sweeteners like steviol glycosides and mogrosides and converts them into dietary fibres, providing sweetness with added nutritional and health benefits.

Is SweetBiotix protected?

SweetBiotix® are trademarked and patented products protected by a significant intellectual property portfolio comprising over 25 patents with a number of recent additional filings. Patents must demonstrate novelty/uniqueness, inventiveness (i.e. no one else has invented it), and industry applicability confirming the uniqueness of SweetBiotix. OptiBiotix patents cover synthesis, composition, and the application of SweetBiotix in food and beverages. They protect OptiBiotix's commercial interests, prevent competitors from entering the market, and create licensing opportunities with partners. SweetBiotix® is a registered trademark in international markets.

The SweetBiotix® Opportunity

Widespread concern over the use of sugar in food and drinks has led to the development and use of sugar substitutes. These may be natural (e.g stevia, mogrosides, polyols) which often do not offer optimal taste profiles or artificial (e.g aspartame, sucralose, saccharin). Health concerns with artificial sugar substitutes have been widely reported and have been previously summarised (See RNS 30 January 2024). SweetBiotix are unique as a sugar substitute as they have been developed to overcome health concerns, are high in fibre, and have prebiotic functionality providing nutritional and health benefits not present in existing products. This a market estimated to be worth $29.9bn by 2029 (Markets and Markets: Oct 2024).

What is the evidence that SweetBiotix® are sweet and have health benefits

SweetBiotix® products have been tested by academic groups who have published five papers in peer reviewed journals providing an independent assessment of SweetBiotix's® taste and health benefits. One publication on an early SweetBiotix product concluded 'This new ingredient could provide health benefits when evaluated in human studies by combining sweetness and prebiotic fiber functionality'. (see Prebiotic Potential of a New Sweetener Based on Galactooligosaccharides and Modified Mogrosides - PubMed (nih.gov). The Company has provided SweetBiotix samples under Material Transfer Agreements (MTA) to a number of partners, many of whom have specialist expertise in taste testing and sugar substitutes. This has led to a formal agreement with a USA partner and DSM Firmenich, a $12bn ingredients supplier, and several food and beverage companies supporting SweetBiotix development with a view to the use of SweetBiotix in their products. The combination of academic and industry validation with an industry leader specialist in the field committing manufacturing resources should give investors' confidence in these products. 

What has happened to the manufacture of these products?

Manufacturing scale up of SweetBiotix has been carried out by partners and shown flavour and texture comparable to laboratory scale. Scale up with Firmenich's contract manufacturer slowed during and after its merger with DSM and was subsequently transferred to DSM due to its inhouse manufacturing capability and the scale of the opportunity. The new team were unable to consistently reach high yields using the original enzyme extract. As part of its ongoing SweetBiotix partner development program, OptiBiotix screened over 50 enzymes and was able to identify a new single enzyme (i.e. not an extract) which produced extremely high yields (~90%) of the same SweetBiotix. This simplifies the manufacturing process to produce a cleaner, more concentrated product with higher sweetness intensity and a significantly improved flavour profile. This enzyme works on both mogrosides and stevia glycosides allowing the generation of multiple SweetBiotix products of high purity, with the same enzyme, with a wide sweetness range compared to sucrose. This increases the number of product opportunities, and, from an industry viewpoint, reduces the need for multiple enzymes and manufacturing processes with a substantial reduction in production costs.

One other unique aspect of the new enzyme is that it produces SweetBiotix from sucrose (sugar). This reduces ingredient input costs and valorises an unhealthy, commoditised ingredient (sugar) with a rapidly reducing customer base into a healthy prebiotic fibre. This changes the positioning with sugar producers who have previously seen SweetBiotix® as a competitor, to a potential partner, by offering a unique, patented process which can utilise and modify commoditised sucrose into higher valued SweetBiotix products.

Importantly, whilst there is a material change in the enzymatic process there is no change to the resulting SweetBiotix® product other than higher yields which significantly increases the purity (~90%) of the final product. The Company believes that most of the process changes are covered within its existing patent portfolio but has extended its filings on the enzyme use and composition given the uniqueness and commercial potential of their properties.

Next Steps

The Company is producing quantities of SweetBiotix for its development, manufacturing, and application partners and sharing the new enzymatic process with DSM Firmenich, our US partner, and major sugar producers given its potential to valorise sugar.

The Company continues to receive an annual milestone of £100k from its US partner related to work on Mogrosides with total received to end of 2024 of £550k. Milestone payments are rarely seen in the food, beverage and supplement industry, even less so prior to commercial launch and should give investors' confidence in the value attributed to this technology by industry.

Subject to any partner constraints, the Company hopes to be in a position to demonstrate a range of SweetBiotix products to investors in H1 2026.

Stephen O'Hara, CEO of OptiBiotix, commented: "The Company has made a breakthrough in improving the manufacturing process of its SweetBiotix products. By using a new enzyme, rather than an enzyme extract, the Company is able to achieve substantially higher yields of a purer, more concentrated, better tasting product with lower ingredient and production costs. These are significant benefits when producing at large scale. This new enzyme works on both mogrosides and stevia glycosides allowing the generation of multiple SweetBiotix products using the same enzyme creating products with a wide sweetness range. This increases the number of partnering and product opportunities and reduces the need for multiple enzymes and manufacturing processes with a substantial reduction in production costs. Whilst there have been the inevitable complexity and technical challenges in scaling up a new product with new partners these recent improvements have led us to a more efficient, cost-effective process, and an enhanced commercial proposition. The new enzyme not only improves yields but valorises an unhealthy, commoditised ingredient (sugar) into higher value, healthy, SweetBiotix products. The Company believes these improvements reflect a material change in the outlook for SweetBiotix products."

This announcement contains information which, prior to its disclosure, was considered inside information for the purposes of the UK Market Abuse Regulation and the Directors of the Company are responsible for the release of this announcement.

About OptiBiotix - www.optibiotix.com

OptiBiotix Health plc (AIM: OPTI, OTCQB: OPTBF), OptiBiotix Health has developed a range of technologies and commercialised products which modulate the human microbiome to help prevent and manage human disease.  Since the Group's inception it has created a wide range of microbiome-based ingredients and products including prebiotic products like SlimBiome®, WellBiome®, SweetBiotix® and Microbiome Modulators within its core OptiBiotix Health plc (OPTI) business, but also skincare through its holdings in SkinBioTherapeutics PLC (SBTX), and probiotics through ProBiotix Health plc (PBX). These companies create a diverse portfolio technologies and products in an emerging area of healthcare that is of growing interest in consumer markets throughout the world.