Nutrizeal’s Development of High‐Value Marine‐Sourced Nutraceuticals: 

Pointers for Success

Andy Herbert PhD

High‐Value Marine‐Sourced Nutraceuticals

• What do we mean by nutraceuticals?

• What do we mean by high value?

• Privately held New Zealand company, based in Nelson, NZ

• Founded 1995• Innovation & manufacture of ingredients for natural medicines and foods

• Manufacturing facilities: replacement value = $26 million 

• extraction processing including supercritical; 

• bulk drying; • powder blending; encapsulation; • retail product production.  

• Compliance: NZFSA; ACVM; APVMA; European seafood license; Organic; Kosher.

Examples of Nutraceuticals made at Nutrizeal

NutraceuticalsProducts derived from food sources that are purported to provide extra health benefits, in addition to the basic nutritional value found in foods

The Value of Different Products in the Fish Oil Market

Oil Type Manufacturing Wholesale Price USD / kg

Source

Fish oil supplement 18:12 “normal”

Conventional 6 Frost & Sullivan

Fish oil supplement“Low concentrate”

Conventional + others 20 – 40 Estimates based upon retail products

Krill phospholipid oil Selective solvent extraction

160 www.akerbiomarine.com

DHA (40 ‐ 50%) oil for infant nutrition 

Algal fermentation 85 ‐ 180 www.nutraingredients.com

Rx Omega‐3 fish oilLovaza / Omacor

Conventional + urea complexation + molecular distillation

200 www.pronova.com

Increasing concentration, complexity, 

purity, validated science

Making money from marine nutraceuticals

• Health Benefit = High Value• OmacorTM/LovazaTM• Ethyl esters of fish‐derived EPA + DHA• Lipid‐lowering: combination with statins. • Sales in 2013 = US$ 1.1 billion

• Patentable claimsE.g. Krill Oils

Nutraceuticals from the marine biosphere• Micro‐organisms; macro‐algae; molluscs; crustaceans; fish• The lack of an analogous ethno‐medical history as compared with terrestrial habitats

• Fish oils (omega‐3) are the leading marine‐sourced nutraceuticals • Scientific pointers

• Key challenge: very low yields(e.g. 10–4–10‐6 % range on a wet‐weight basis).• Need kilo‐tonnes of freshly‐harvested biomass material to support a successful clinical development program.

• Large harvests threaten biodiversity conservation.• Difficulties in isolation and structural elucidation of marine extracts; thwarts synthesis.

Nutraceutical development benchmarks

Product Type Time to Market Development Cost Probability of Success

New product (e.g. new source) into existing market 

2 – 5 years NZD 2 million > 50%

Novel product, first to market, validated health claim

> 5 years NZD > 5 million 20% ?

Critical features for successful projects 

1. Well‐defined product specification/description• Having a product concept is essential to help control project scope

2. Adequate resource size• Enough raw material; suitable price; supplier engagement 

3. Adequate ROI• Consequence of investment, COGS, market size, etc

4. Barriers to entry• Those that protect your investment; those that limit your opportunity

Nutrizeal’s project management process

1. Evaluation phase• Quantitative evaluation, very early on (< $5K committed) • Predominantly a desk‐top exercise; written evaluation• Fewer than 50% of “opportunities” pass this filter!

2. Stage‐gates – provide many opportunities to kill a project!i. Proof of conceptii. Feasibilityiii. Scale‐up and industrializationiv. Commercialization

Nutrizeal’s R&D Portfolio

•Complex lipids• Speciality oils; active molecules; “the hard targets”

•Many from marine sources; • Some from fishing industry byproducts

•Partnerships with CRI’s; Callaghan Innovation•Assisted by TDG (now “Growth Grant”)

Main Extraction Processing Level

3 x (net) 850L Extractors

5 t CO2 working inventory

Multi‐product

Our VisionEnhanced health through outstanding products obtained from natural sources

• We are investing in R&D to create our own proprietary products. 

• We seek ideas and collaborators in this journey.