Our Specialty Ingredients business development team focuses on innovation to anticipate the evolving needs of the marketplace. All our LSI businesses are addressing a wide range of consumer-oriented and industrial markets, as well as wood applications and agricultural offerings along a common microbial control platform. The focus is on innovative and smart microbial control solutions for resource protection and a consumer-centric healthy environment. There is also a developing focus on increasingly challenging regulatory requirements that carry both risks and opportunities for competitive differentiation.
Regulatory Stewardship
The changing regulatory landscape is impacted by multiple factors; chemical regulations are becoming more stringent and increasing in number, difficulties and enforcements. Global regulatory scenarios are becoming increasingly complex, with local adaptations especially in emerging markets. There is a greater concern over the environmental impact of biocides driven by consumer and non-governmental organizations; new potential health concerns are also being raised.
Because of the heavily regulated nature of the microbial control platform, the choice of chemicals available is shrinking while the requirement for new and established products is increasing. These challenges offer us opportunities to differentiate against our competition by using our deep scientific and regulatory knowledge and expertise. Our leading position in Microbial Control Regulatory enables us to address and meet market challenges and offer solutions, which protect our customer’s brands and the environment.
Our extensive portfolio of approved active substances is a major competitive advantage when traditional biocides such as methylisothiazolinones (MIT) become more strictly regulated due to health and environmental concerns. In response to an increasing global demand for MIT-free biocide formulations, we have expanded our portfolio of preservatives with two active broadband biocides for the wet-state preservation of water-based paints, adhesives and construction chemicals. For more information, see Microbial Control Solutions.
Market-driven Innovation
Growing awareness of health risks increases demand for innovative, safe and sustainable hygiene and microbial-control solutions, which deliver infection control, clean-label preservation, a safe and healthy living environment and a sustainable use of resources.
We have an incremental innovation pipeline with a high number of very promising projects, which have the potential to convert into market leading innovations supporting the Specialty Ingredients innovation platform in microbial control.
Our market-led microbial control innovation spans from single highly effective anti-microbial ingredients to formulated microbial solutions. Our know-how in formulation expertise and application technology enables our customers to access formulated turnkey solutions, which meet the complex requirements of our customers’ applications.
In the areas of hygiene and disinfection, we offer industry-leading innovative blends of anti-microbial ingredients that provide safe and effective protection against bacteria, molds and other contaminants while satisfying increasingly strict global regulations.
Collaboration and Start-up Funding
In early 2018, we launched with the Prolog Lonza Consumer Fund, an exclusive Venture Capital Fund in partnership with Prolog Ventures to invest in potentially game-changing, consumer-centric start-ups focused in North America.
The Fund offers value by providing early-stage, high-growth companies with access to our global resources and expertise. In return, we can gain insights into innovative business models and technologies, evolving consumer trends and changing demands, and new digital routes to market. By tapping into the entrepreneurial ecosystem, we aim to expand our future business growth opportunities.
In 2019, Prolog Ventures’ first funding has been released to bio-ClarityTM, a digitally native brand known for its skincare products. Specifically formulated for the treatment of acne in teenagers and young adults, bioClarityTM is rapidly growing in popularity among Generation Z and Millennials. The investment enables us to collaborate in a high value niche market, to prototype customized solution offerings and to benefit from bioClarityTM's expertise in consumer targeted social media marketing.
In the last three years, we have established collaboration with Universities that can help us further develop and maintain our leading position in microbial control. We have established collaborations with the University of Sofia (a world leading school in colloid science and formulation), Sheffield University (a leading research center on bacterial adhesion and biofilm), Manchester University (with world-class Physical and Microbiology departments) and Oxford University.
In collaboration with Manchester University’s School of Biological Sciences and School of Physics and Astronomy, we have been awarded a grant from Innovate UK, a non-governmental public body operating as part of the United Kingdom Research and Innovation organization. With this support we are working on combatting antimicrobial resistance (AMR) through developing the understanding of the interaction between microorganism and biocide and enabling market expansion through sales growth from active ingredients and formulated products.