WATCH: Award winner Bened on its psychobiotics business plan in the US and biotherapeutic aspirations

In the recent NutraIngredients-Asia Awards, the Taiwan-based company took home the Probiotics Product of the Year with its psychobiotics product branded Pure Happiness.  

Containing its proprietary strain Lactobacillus plantarum​ PS128 for supporting relaxation and sleep, the probiotic product has been available in over 20 countries, even countries such as Africa.

CEO Frankie Cheng told NutraIngredients-Asia ​that over one million boxes of Pure Happiness have been sold in the past four to five years.

“The key consumer groups are made of sub-healthy population that experience insomnia, high stress, anxiety, or depression,” ​he said, adding that awareness of psychobiotics has increased due to the growing scientific evidence. 

To date, eight human clinical studies have been published on PS128 and its other probiotic strain Lactobacillus paracasei ​PS23 – which has been shown to reverse behaviours associated with anxiety and depression.​

Asked the upcoming plans, Cheng said the company has been planning for a “more aggressive expansion” ​next year in the US, with a focus on the D2C model.

“We just completed a very successful series A fundraising and are poised to take on many more countries and channels to further increase market penetration.​

“We are so psyched about our ever more aggressive expansion in 2022, especially in the United States. Indeed, we are planning to roll out our products based on the D2C model in the States,” ​he said.

In addition, he revealed that the company would be exploring the pharmaceutical space.

“We already started the work to turn our psychobiotics into a pharmaceutical LBP and have applied for investigational new drug development from the FDA. ​

“We firmly believe that with FDA’s new drug approval, we can potentially become the first-in-class psychobiotics therapeutic provider in the world.”​

Watch the video to find out more.