HMOs for life: dsm-firmenich discusses the importance and potential of HMOs for human health

21 Aug 2023 --- The use of human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs) as an ingredient in baby and toddler products is seeing a remarkable increase. From 2018 to 2022, there was an annual compound growth rate of 93% in global HMO-containing launches. The majority of these launches in 2022 consisted of baby formula and milk.

Nutrition Insight speaks with James Young, the vice president of early life nutrition at dsm-firmenich, about the upcoming developments in the HMO space, the company’s vision for the ingredient’s future and what makes HMOs important.

“Early life nutrition is a very important segment within the health nutrition and care business at dsm-firmenich,” says Young. “We supply the vast majority of the early life nutrition business and customers with a huge range of different ingredients and premixes around the world – HMOs are the next big ingredient within our portfolio.”

“HMOs are the third largest component of breast milk and breast milk is the gold standard of pretty much every infant formula on the world market. The goal of pretty much every ingredient and every infant formula supplier is to get as close to breast milk as possible, and HMOs are one of the most important components of breast milk to be made commercially available.” 

James Young, vice president of early life nutrition at dsm-firmenich.A history of health
Young explains that dsm-firmenich has positioned itself as a leading expert in making HMOs commercially available since its acquisition of Glycom in 2020. He further reveals that the company’s primary focus now lies in expanding the capabilities of HMOs as a crucial ingredient in infant formula and exploring its potential applications in other areas beyond that market.

Now that the company has completed its merger, it plans to implement them into products around the globe.

“Early life nutrition is, I would argue, one of the most purpose-led segments you can be in,” Young says. “Providing the right nutrition for infants from their very first start in life is one of the most important things one can do, and that’s why there’s so much research that goes on into breast milk as the gold standard.”

Young further reveals that, unfortunately, not all mothers are able to breastfeed, and some infants may not adapt to breastfeeding. As a result, infant formula plays a crucial role in supporting a child’s development and there exists a significant opportunity to continue advancing research and scientific efforts in creating optimal nutritional solutions for babies.

“Ultimately, those first 1000 days of life are pretty much what guides the rest of your life. There’s a lot of R&D and a lot of academic research that shows the link between those early years of an infant’s development and the onset of lots of longer-term issues and diseases that we have as adults. It is the most important part in life, and I think we have a responsibility to make sure we give every child in the world the best start.”

Focus on infant nutrition
According to Young, the company’s R&D team is working on multiple projects, helping to unlock valuable insights into this essential component of infant nutrition. 

Young says the goal of infant formula R&D is to get as close as the “gold standard” of breast milk.However, he notes that replicating the unique natural ingredients found in breast milk poses considerable challenges in terms of manufacturing and ensuring stability in commercial products.

“We spend a lot of R&D money on creating those new features and helping our customers in understanding more about the combinations of ingredients that can create real benefits in the real world and within an infant’s life,” Young underscores. 

“We are very purpose-led in that – we really believe in doing the right thing for infants around the world and there’s a lot of investment in innovation on that front.”

Early life and beyond
Young highlights that there is also an extensive amount of research focused on the mother’s maternal journey during gestation and the influence of diet and nutritional elements consumed by the mother in preparation for the child’s arrival. 

He notes that numerous academic studies have revealed connections surrounding the potential benefits of optimizing the mother’s health to provide the child with the best possible start in life.

He further emphasizes the importance of addressing preterm birth, allergies and other emerging issues in young children, noting that these concerns are closely connected to the nutritional interactions between the mother and the baby during pregnancy and early development. 

dsm-firmenich is constantly researching and looking for new HMOs and HMO combinations.“There’s a lot of research going on regarding the use of HMOs outside of infant nutrition and there is some really interesting science being done by us and by lots of academic partners around the world as well. All to do with the impact of HMOs on the microbiome of both the baby through breast milk and the mother.”

“Only now are we starting to have the commercial availability of HMOs, so that we can actually conduct research on a large scale in both preclinical and clinical settings, while also being able to work on combinations of those HMOs. This will help us to understand which HMOs have the biggest impact and which combinations of HMOs have the biggest impact along with other ingredients such as probiotics or vitamins or lipids, to name a few.”

The future of HMOs
Young also reveals that one area dsm-firmenich has recently been looking into outside of infant nutrition is extreme sports. The research has been centered on extreme athletes, especially cyclists, endurance runners and ultra-marathon runners, who face significant challenges with their gut health – an issue that can have a considerable impact on their performance, both during races and throughout their athletic careers. 

He also notes that many athletes struggle to reach their full potential due to gut-related problems, which can be highly debilitating. The company’s study aims to address these challenges and find solutions to optimize gut health for top-level athletes and enable them to perform at their best.

“We’ve been doing some work through the dsm-firmenich Cycling Team,” he elaborates. “We’ve created a special blend of HMOs for them to use, and we’re getting some quite positive feedback.” 

Outside of infant nutrition, the company is also looking for applications in areas like sports, including research with its own cycling team (Image credit: dsm-firmenich).“There are also really interesting academic studies going on around the world. HMOs may have a positive impact on multiple different health areas, from everything from brain health to gut health, which are the more traditional spaces. We’re also seeing links with things like arthritis, showing that there is potential for these ingredients to have an impact on later life as well.”

Breaking into new markets
Within the dsm-firmenich HMO team, Young says there is a superb regulatory organization that works across the R&D team to ensure regulatory access to as many markets as possible. 

“So far, we have over 100 explicit regulatory approvals for our HMOs portfolio and access to over 160 markets,” he states. “It’s an enormous part of the globe that we’re able to cover.

However, he reveals that there is another large market the company is looking to expand into – the Chinese infant formula market.

“There are around 10 million annual births in China, which is among the highest number of births for any country globally. We’ve been working very closely with our dsm-firmenich-Chinese colleagues – and the Chinese approval bodies – to make sure that we are first in the market, and we are very close to getting that approval.” 

“We look forward to being able to celebrate that very soon and to make sure that these new ingredients are available to the Chinese infant formula market as well, so that babies in China can also benefit from what the rest of the world is starting to see,” Young concludes.

By William Bradford Nichols