REG - OptiBiotix Health - SweetBiotix Overview and Update

OptiBiotix HealthAnnouncement

24/11/2025 07:00

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RNS Number : 6314I  OptiBiotix Health PLC  24 November 2025

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)
(https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35830712/) . 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.

 

 

 For further information, please contact: OptiBiotix Health plc      www.optibiotix.com (http://www.optibiotix.com/)
 Neil Davidson, Chairman
 Stephen O'Hara, Chief Executive

 Cairn Financial Advisers LLP (NOMAD and Broker)                     Tel: 020 7213 0880
 Liam Murray / Ludovico Lazzaretti / James Western

About OptiBiotix - www.optibiotix.com (http://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.

 

 

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