17 October 2008 - What do Cadbury, Coca-Cola, Nestle, Campbell Soup, Ajinomoto, Solae and Firmenich all have in common? – The answer is: They all work with US biotechnology company Senomyx, Inc.
Health conscious consumers are increasingly shaping the food and beverage industries as companies are seeking to cater for their demand by using healthier ingredients and reducing the amount of sugar and salt in their products.
One option for a food manufacturer is to provide the same product but by cutting back on sodium and sweetener content.
However, these products, in general, lose their attractiveness. Indeed, producers may be improving the nutritional profile of their foods, but they are faced with the problem of taste loss.
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Thanks to Senomyx, some producers are using new ingredients that trick the tongue’s tastebuds and provide sensations of saltiness and sweetness. |
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Companies using Senomyx's chemical compounds in their products also have the advantage of not having to list them separately on ingredient labels. Instead, they are classified as artificial flavours, which are already present on most labels.
"We're helping companies clean up their labels," said Senomyx's chief executive, Kent Snyder in an April 2005 interview with the New York Times.
San Diego-based Senomyx, thanks to its knowledge of the human genome sequence and to its staff composed on biotech and pharmaceutical specialists (the company was founded by prominent biochemist Lubert Stryer in 1999), has identified hundreds of taste receptors on the tongue. The company’s chemical compounds activate the receptors enabling the accentuation of the taste of sugar or salt. |
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“We are using the receptor to find novel flavour ingredients”, said Kent Snyder at an investor conference in Boston earlier this week.
Senomyx’s ongoing research continues to bear its fruit as, during 2008, the company has either expanded into new collaborations or extended current ones.
In early January, Senomyx said it would work with Firmenich on cooling agents. Three months later, in April, the company announced it had extended its collaborative research and license agreements with Nestle and with Coca-Cola. In July, its partnership with Cadbury was prolonged. And, finally, in mid-September, Senomyx said it had reached “critical milestones” in the collaboration with soy protein producer Solae with regards to the development of bitter blockers that improve the taste of soy protein.
Thanks to this productivity, Senomyx reported a 42% increase in H1 revenue at USD 9.6 million in August.
“We believe that our relationships with these exceptional companies are indicative of the value of our proprietary technologies, our business model, and the commercial need for the flavour ingredients we are pursuing,” said Snyder at the time.
In July, Senomyx also reported the discovery of the sucrose enhancer, S6973, what Snyder describes as an “important achievement” for his company, which reinforces the advantages of its proprietary taste receptor technology”.
The CEO commented: “Taste tests demonstrated that S6973 enabled the reduction of up to 50% of the sucrose present in beverage, yogurt, cereal, and cookie prototypes with no off-tastes. We are excited about the potential of S6973 to help our current and potential future partners address the consumer need for lower calorie products that maintain the taste of natural sugar.”
The Senomyx Business Model
Food manufacturers working with Senomyx are able to differentiate their products from those of their competitors. However, “Senomyx retains rights to enter into license agreements with multiple other companies for the same flavour ingredients in non-competing product categories or geographies”, the company says.
Companies which have agreements with Senomyx are responsible for the manufacturing, marketing, sales and distribution of their products that include Senomyx ingredients. Such deals allow Senomyx to benefit from its partners’ prominent brand recognition, as well as, in some cases, global market presence and established sales and distribution channels.
Via the collaborations, Senomyx receives license fee payments, research and development funding as well as milestone payments. The company also benefits from royalties from the sales of its partners’ products that contain its flavour ingredients.
Outlook
Snyder, at the Boston conference said that he expects progress to be made in each of its programmes. In particular, he believes that the determination of the S6973 sucrose enhancer will be key to overall progress.
The CEO also said he expects new flavoured product launches in the short-term future with its research partner Nestle. Snyder also predicted that the Firmenich collaboration on novel flavour ingredients, which provide a cooling taste effect for confectioneries, foods and beverages, will make significant progress.
Senomyx, which is expecting total revenues of USD 20 million to 24 million for the full financial year, is also monitoring potential new research partnerships.
“We are on the lookout for new collaborations”, concluded Snyder.