Novozymes’ Willy Pardiñas on OneHealth and human health challenges

07-Nov-2023 - Last updated on 07-Nov-2023 at 16:14 GMT

“If you think about what Novozymes provides, they have a library of ingredients that can be used to confer a benefit for human health. We make sure our designs are market driven and most importantly clinically tested. We want to make sure our products confer a medical benefit that a doctor can confirm by looking at our clinical research and say, ‘This is what benefits my patient in a specific way.’”

That’s according to Willy Pardiñas, head of Novozymes OneHealth North America, who discussed this concept of OneHealth with NutraIngredients-USA at this year’s SupplySide West in Las Vegas.

OneHealth is one of several missions of Novozymes, a Danish global biotechnology company. The OneHealth concept can address a multitude of human health challenges, including mental health concerns.

Novozymes is employing probiotics as psychobiotics, the practice of providing an exogenous microorganism that will offer a health benefit that is bacterially induced. These benefits may improve mood, depression and even sleep.

The company is working on a probiotic strain that secretes a cytokine which can cross the blood-brain barrier to offer a mental health advantage.

“This is the great new technology that is being produced as we speak,” Pardiñas said.

Mental health is not the only area Novozymes addresses.

Bacterial infections are also in their domain, such as H. pylori.

“In the United States, about 30% of the population has H. pylori and probably don’t even know it. Outside the United States, we’re talking about plus 50-60%," Pardiñas said. “This is why we say we’re market driven. We look at what the market needs, and we say we need to solve these things. Other things we’re looking at could come down the pipeline, whether it be rheumatoid arthritis, respiratory disease or something that's immunoprotective. Those are all the categories we’re looking at to make sure we can provide a better future for human health.”