The Bangalore-headquartered company specializes in liposomal and microencapsulation technologies to enhance nutrient absorption, stability, and efficacy.
It boasts a GMP-compliant manufacturing plant located in Tumkur, Karnataka, which houses a R&D facility approved by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) under India’s Ministry of Science and Technology.
Its new manufacturing facility, located near the existing site and also incorporates an application lab, will focus on advanced delivery systems and customized liposomal solutions to enable deeper formulation support from concept development to commercial supply.
“We’ve been seeing an increased demand from both domestic and global clients for better bioavailable nutraceutical ingredients. This has pushed us to build a new manufacturing facility to scale our entire operations,” Dr Chaitra Prasad, Technical Director at Samarth Biorigins, told NutraIngredients.
“The application lab mainly functions as a co-creating space specifically for custom formulations with our partners. We work to understand their requirements and the solution they are looking for, such as an ingredient superior to or differentiate from [what’s in] the market, and design the delivery platform so that the ingredient is more stable and better absorbed in the body.”
The facility also allows Samarth Biorigins’ partners to see how an ingredient performs in an actual clinical model and when it goes to commercial scale, with a manufacturing capacity of up to 1 ton per day.
Currently, its clientele consists of both Indian and overseas firms, including those in the US and Europe.
According to Dr Prasad, Samarth Biorigins has been receiving enquiries from companies in the Middle East, Australia, and other parts of Asia that are keen to differentiate their products and prove their efficacy through clinically validated models.
“This is where we are expanding—helping them to identify the right delivery system and providing end-to-end support at our in-house facilities.
“Going ahead, we are looking at innovating with more ingredients, such as peptides, proteins, signal peptides, cofactors, and many of the micronutrients that are essential but very poorly bioavailable and challenging to work with.”
Getting an edge over competitors
Over the past two to three years, Samarth Biorigins has observed a surge in liposomal players in the industry.
However, Dr Prasad emphasized that liposomal technology is not just about putting a phospholipid layer around an ingredient.
“As liposomal technology does not benefit all ingredients in the same way, we need to understand how each ingredient works in the body and based on the mechanism, tailor-make a delivery platform. This is important for it to really function better in the system.
“We have various patented technologies, but it doesn’t mean every new ingredient would fit into one of the platforms that we have. It can be a combination of technologies that come into play, so it is a never-ending process of innovation.”
The company has since diversified into myriad technologies, including micellar system, microencapsulation, sustained release, delayed release, targeted delivery, and skin-based absorption.
Another challenge when it comes to liposomal ingredients is realizing consistent quality in particle size and performance during commercial scale-up. “Many companies develop advanced delivery platforms at lab scale, and it becomes a challenge to create the exact particle size, encapsulation efficiency, and drying stability at commercial scale.
“Our new facility bridges this gap. It has state-of-the-art equipment and advanced technologies to achieve consistency in product delivery. We also have capabilities in-house to perform clinical testing and trials to ensure they meet regulatory clearances and approvals.”
