Nutraceuticals World (NW): Biofarma Group is a global CDMO with eight manufacturing facilities around the world. Can you discuss your capabilities, services, and products you offer to the nutraceuticals industry?
 
Gianfranco Nazzi, CEO of Biofarma Group: Biofarma Group is a global full-service Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO)​ and a leader in developing, producing, and packaging food supplements, medical devices, probiotic-based drugs, and cosmetics exclusively for third parties.
 
Our headquarters are located in Italy, but with more than 1,500 employees and eight manufacturing sites that geographically cross the continents of Europe, America, and Asia, Biofarma ensures a truly global offering. Each plant boasts cutting-edge technological production skills and operates synergistically to meet the customers’ requirements.
 
In terms of expertise, we stand apart. As the only global Health & Beauty Care CDMO, we guide companies from concept to market, offering a seamless pathway to success. By fusing extensive capabilities with a thorough understanding of Health and Beauty Care trends, we are uniquely placed to be the solution for our customers.
 
Being a preferred outsourcing partner means being ready to support the challenges our customers face today and tomorrow:
 

• One-stop shop for the whole life cycle of the product from design, development, scalable to commercial production;
• End-to-end services related to the production of the product from active ingredient to packaging, labeling, and industrialization;
• Cross-divisional support in the areas of product development, analytical development, clinical trial supply management, regulatory support and technical transfer.

 
NW: What makes Biofarma different from other CDMOs? What technologies do you offer?
 
Nazzi: Generating innovative product ideas can be challenging. We elevate the customers’ development programs with our dosage technologies. With eight production sites located in Europe, the U.S., and China we can offer a wide range of dosage forms and packaging services, meeting the highest standard of quality and reliability.
 
Getting to market as quickly as possible is critical to stay ahead of competitors. For that, companies need advanced manufacturing capabilities that can deliver both speed and scale, without compromising on product quality and consistency.
 
Our technologies range from solids (tablets, film-coated tabs, chewables, beadlets, multi-layer, ODTs, effervescent tabs) and semi-solids (emulsions, gels, creams and pastes, butters, scrubs and muds) to powders (microencapsulated powders, granules, oro-solube powders, water-dispersible powders) and liquids (liquids, oils, multi-phasic).

 
NW: What challenges do companies face in manufacturing probiotics and how do you overcome them?
 
Nazzi: As our mindset shifts from sick-care to self-care, we’ve become more intentional about our diet, nutrition, exercise, and lifestyle. But we now also know that beneficial microbes offer new tools to preventively and proactively care for ourselves.
 
Our group develops products containing probiotics, released as nutritional supplements and drugs and enriched with galenic forms, including capsules, tablets, powders and the innovative nutritional supplement Oildrop. The group boats two dedicated and independent manufacturing sites in Italy and the U.S. designed to be ISO-8 clean spaces with strict temperature, humidity, and airflow standards.
 
Based on trends and data in the market, the global probiotic market is expected to be worth $75.9 billion by 2027 (the market size was estimated at $54.21 billion in 2020). The dietary supplement market is evolving towards an increased focus on microbiome health with consumers becoming increasingly open to using probiotics for managing their wellbeing beyond digestive health.
 
Examples of new health indications for probiotics include skin health, metabolic health, bone health, mood/stress, and migraine headaches. Our R&D labs are increasingly working on very specific therapeutic and generational target solutions to offer customized and scientifically solid solutions.

 
NW: What’s your assessment of innovation in today’s market? How does Biofarma approach innovation and R&D?
 
Nazzi: We are a CDMO with a strong vocation for research and innovation, according to an approach that prioritizes the wellbeing of humans, the environment and sustainability, for the benefit of the entire community.
 
For this reason, research in Biofarma Group can count on two distinct divisions of professionals of the highest technical and scientific level: Research & Innovation Center and Development Center.
 
R&I is a team of professionals who every day are sparks and constant stimulus for development and improvement oriented towards a unique and differentiating future: a permanent look at the future, with the awareness that we no longer and only have to rely on internal ideas and resources but also on external solutions, knowledge and technological expertise, thanks to an ecosystem of innovators made up of start-ups, universities, research institutes and suppliers.
 
The Development team is staffed by over 50 specialists with strong multi-sector technical skills ranging from nutraceuticals, cosmetics, medical devices and probiotics. Flexibility, open-mindedness and the ability to adapt to any type of request are the pillars and cornerstones of the team’s work, which starts with an idea, continues with galenic development and is completed with its industrialization.

 
NW: What upcoming events does Biofarma participate in? How can companies connect with you?
 
Nazzi: We plan to attend Vitafoods Europe in Geneva in May, CPHI Worldwide in Milan in October, and Supply Side West in Las Vegas. These are important events for us as networking and relationship-building opportunities on an international scale as well as opportunities to present our research and innovation projects.
 
Innovation in fact is part of our DNA. It defines us, it makes us unique, it is our hallmark. Staying power, consistency, competition and our creative spirit have allowed us to write a success story and have made us not only a great group, but also a reliable partner in the international CDMO market.