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As per a report by India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF), the Indian biotech-industry amounted to $63 billion in 2019 and is expected to reach $150 billion by 2025, with a CAGR of 16.4 percent. Additionally, by 2025, Indian biotechnology industry’s contribution to the global biotech market is expected to grow to 19 percent from three percent in 2017.
Bio pharmaceuticals are the largest contributors to the sector, followed by bio similars, and bio services. Previously unheard of, biotech based flavour and fragrance (F&F) products form a small volume of the biotech industry’s portfolio, but hold significant promise to deliver natural and sustainable solutions to the global F&F, cosmetics, and wellness industries.
Historically, India has been home to spices, flavours, and bespoke perfumes (think ittars, essential oils, and extracts from Kannauj). With the burgeoning consumer demand of packaged food, and personal care products, combined with the consistent rise in income levels in India, this sector is poised to grow more than 11 percent over the coming years to meet this demand.
The global Flavour and Fragrance (F&F) business is expected to reach more than $36 billion by 2026, with the natural ingredients segment growing the fastest from 2021 to 2026. According to the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, India’s contribution to the global natural F&F industry is more than $500 million in specifically menthol, sandalwood, jasmine, tuberose, among other natural essential oils (only).
On closer examination, relentless exploitation of natural plant and agricultural resources in these ingredient supply chains has led to greatly reduced water tables (mint crop), extinction (sandalwood and oudh), and proliferation of labour malpractice (jasmine and other florals). The world food market, largely US and EU based consumer goods companies, and F&F houses are looking for alternatives to agricultural specific, cultivated or wild habitation based natural molecules to meet their global demand, while still being able to avoid upcoming regulatory hurdles of using synthetic additives in flavor formulations.
This is where biotechnology can play a significant role. By using invitro enzyme catalyzed reactions or invivo microbial transformations, and fermentation a variety of natural molecules can be produced with less vulnerable raw materials in mild processing conditions.
Today, several global F&F companies work with platform developing companies to develop biotech products externally, either through collaborations, or via contracts. Most companies developing the microorganisms remain based in the US (Amyris, Ginkgo), Europe (Evolva, Ennolys), and others. Based out of Bengaluru, Tojo Vikas Biotech completely focuses on developing technology for and manufacturing natural ingredients produced from biotechnological routes for eventual application in flavour and fragrance products.
Tojo Vikas manufactures these internally developed natural chemicals using fermentation based processes. It is one of the only companies in India developing several such processes for the production of natural chemicals used in or as aroma precursors, flavour and fragrance compounds using whole cells or enzymes.
“What sets us apart is the end-to-end capabilities we can provide. Tojo Vikas group companies provide solutions at all levels: research, scale-up, fermentation based production, advance separations, as well as knowledge of the end use of the ingredient, and understanding of the market dynamics. The promoters have spent several decades in the manufacture of flavour and fragrance ingredients. You will find it hard to draw a parallel with Tojo Vikas in the Indian and international F&F space”, says Vikas Rishi, Director, Tojo Vikas Biotech.
Offering A Range Of Solutions
The first set of products commercialized/ready for commercialization are delta-decalactone (DDL) (EU natural) from C-10 massoia lactone, cis-3-hexenol (CIS) (EU natural), and a sesquiterpene lactone (SCL).
Cis-3-hexenol – Aldehydes, and alcohols with varying degrees of saturation of C6 and C9 chains are considered important components of green leaf aroma often found in fresh fruits and leaves. Conventionally, these molecules are produced by two routes - chemically, by organic synthesis or extracted from plants (mentha arvensis, natural or organic).
Natural extracted cis-3-hexenol prices are intertwined with the volatility of the metha oil commodity market in India. A robust biocatalytic process for 3-hexenol production on a large scale for industrial use is therefore highly desirable. Tojo Vikas’ current process uses whole cell S-HPL (tomato) based protein to produce cis-3-hexenal
and subsequently cis-3-hexenol. Sesquiterpene lactone – This aroma intermediate is the key intermediate for production of the amber note used in fragrances, which also provides fixative properties to the fragrance mixture. "Plant extracts of salvia sclarea are used as raw materials for the production of these lactones by a bioconversion", adds Vikas.
Delta Decalactone – Delta Decalactone, Patented technology (Indian Patent 316764, Granted 2019) is another component offered by TVBPL. Saturated lactones, such as δ-decalactone or δ-dodecalactone, are flavour compounds, for example δ-decalactone having a strong, sweet, creamlike or nutlike fragrance, and have been used as an ingredient for the preparation of flavour compositions. The Tojo Vikas patented process is set-up for bio-transforming an unsaturated lactone to produce a saturated lactone by microbial reduction of the unsaturated lactone in the presence of a reductasedehydrogenase coupled reaction, where the reduction is facilitated by hydrogenation of the unsaturated lactone by a reduced cofactor.
Leaving No Stones Unturned
Incorporated in 2016, Tojo Vikas Biotech was incubated at the Bangalore Bioinnovation Center. What started with a team of three scientists, today, TVBPL has grown to over six scientists in two locations, Bangalore and Chennai. Tojo Vikas has two production sites dedicated to biotech products in Hyderabad and Nashik, while three of its products have been commercialized and have generated more than Rs.5 crore in revenue in FY 2020-21.
With its unique offerings, TVBPL is in a unique position to make an impact on the F&F industry. Tojo Vikas Biotech has added several new clients for its biotech products and has generated significant interest in collaborative research proposals for new products from several major F&F companies. “Our customers are global F&F companies, whose combined value is more than $45 billion.
Customers expect on-spec, product of assured WHO GMP quality. Moving forward, TVBPL is aiming to develop technology to produce natural molecules in a sustainable and affordable way, to meet the global demands of using non-synthetic additives in flavour and fragrance formulations. In order to meet the customer specification, we are also facilitating collaborative research for targeted biotransformation and in some cases, microorganism based process development, specifically for flavour and fragrance natural ingredients”, briefs Vikas.
Economic Potential
The Indian ecosystem provides a unique opportunity to provide the global F&F industry with not only technology, but capacity to really scale the implementation of biotech led natural molecules and ingredients. Products and services will be exportled in the short term, till the creation of a substantial domestic natural ingredient market, providing the country with considerable foreign exchange.
Technology developed here in India, can be patented and licensed if developed indigenously. Other models of operation can include joint ventures, contract research and manufacturing, discussed earlier, or joint research and development projects. These are standard practices for the biopharmaceutical sector, but require investment and creation for the biotech F&F ingredients space. The development and production of the COVID-19 vaccines has demonstrated that all of the above scenarios are possible and can be implemented with collective effort, pressing need, and will.
Creating An Ecosystem
Unlike the development cycle and resource requirement of Fintech, Edtech, SAS, or other IT products and services, biotech based research projects and ventures tend to be capital intensive and time consuming. This has somewhat been accelerated with a concerted effort towards the creation of incubation centers, accelerators, and grants by the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) via the Biotechnology and Industry Research Association Council (BIRAC) – but in order to create an impact on a larger and meaningful scale (without which the investment in these technologies will not bear fruit), some handholding is required by these organizations towards biotech startups and other related fledgeling companies.
Shared facilities on a lab scale exist - however for pilot trials and projects shared facilities on a payper- use basis are needed to provide much needed decision making and optimizing support. A panel of funds (venture capital, angel investors, government backed, or debt options) could also be made available for such companies invested in biotech research and looking to scale and test biotech processes or products.
In addition, once manufacturing on a large scale has taken off, production linked incentives, softer loans to provide capacity expansions or increase, special zones for F&F natural ingredients through biotech and sustainable chemistry can be envisioned. Along with the agrarian based natural ingredient supply, some for which India is global leader (90 percent of total global production of mint oil is from India), we are a short step away from creating a bioeconomy for the biotech based F&F natural ingredient industry.
In order to meet the customer Specification, we are also Facilitating collaborative Research for targeted Bio transformation and in Some cases, microorganism Based process development, Specifically for flavour and Fragrance natural ingredients
Charting The Path Ahead
Aiming to develop natural molecules via biotechnology and enhanced fermentation, Tojo Vikas Biotech also has a pipeline of over forty products including natural aldehydes, ketones, alcohols, lactones, essential oils and aromatics. “Our research teams both at the Bangalore Bio innovation Centre (BBC) and TICEL, Chennai in India drive product development in four stages: (a) enzyme design and molecular engineering of microbial hosts; (b) bio process design, optimization and lab scale proof of concept (c) preliminary scale-up and demonstration at small fermenter levels for gram level on spec product (d) Pilot scale demonstration and optimization for kg level product, and subsequent technology transfer to production locations.
This is enabled by lab infrastructure and state-of-the-art instruments available at its incubator’s research laboratories, where TVBPL is currently incubated”, states Vikas.
Tojo Vikas Biotech envisions creating a template for proof of concept research easily replicated and applied to different end products. In addition, the firm is also looking to invest in a high value, mid volume processing facility in the medium term, specifically tailored towards flavour and fragrance natural molecule production.
In face of the climate crisis facing our world, the development of biotech led natural products will take the pressure off agrarian ecosystems which are cultivating crops for natural oils or fragrances and are contributing to depletion of natural resources, specifically water, biodiversity, and soil fertility. In addition to the F&F industry, the cosmetics, and nutraceutical industries also have potential to create similar systems. The objective is to provide natural biotech based sustainable solutions to the flavour, fragrance, cosmetic, and wellness industry.
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