Founded in 2020 by serial entrepreneur Jan Pacas, All G uses precision fermentation to develop sustainable high-value food ingredients, starting with lactoferrin. Most of the lactoferrin on the market today is derived from extracting proteins from cows’ milk, creating a waste stream of nutrient-deficient milk, Pacas told FoodNavigator-USA.
“To get a kilogram of lactoferrin, you need around 10,000-30,000 liters of milk,” he elaborated. “Some of the largest lactoferrin producers are sold out as a consequence for two to three years.”
With the GRAS status, All G will develop adult nutrition products alongside food and beverage companies, as infant formula requires regulatory approval, Pacas noted. Also, All G received regulatory approval to use its lactoferrin in China — a leading lactoferrin market — he added.
Additionally, All G expects “regulatory approval in a really large market in 2025” for its biotech-derived human lactoferrin, which provides a range of health benefits to infants because it is the “identical protein that exists in women’s breast milk,” Pacas noted.
‘We give you an identical or better product, which is recognized as safe at a better price’
While the biopharmaceutical industry is more mature than biotech for food, the technology shows the same potential to revolutionize supply chains, Pacas noted. In 2022, the US experienced an infant formula shortage, bolstering the case for developing other ingredient sources vital to infant health and nutrition.
Biotech was a “solution for insulin,” which initially required slaughtering thousands of pigs to produce “a little bit of insulin,” Pacas noted. Biotech-derived insulin went from “zero market share in 10 years to 99% market share,” demonstrating how biotech can disrupt an industry, he explained.
“You can deliver the same quality product at a better price, at a predictable price, with a predictable supply chain, and this is what we are going to do,” Pacas said. “With lactoferrin and all those high-value ingredients, we give you an identical or better product, which is recognized as safe at a better price,” Pacas elaborated.
Funding the biotech build: ‘Knocking on VC doors’ is ‘pretty hard’
Looking ahead, All G is working to secure commercial deals, with the eventual plan to launch a dedicated production facility, Pacas explained.
All G is working with Liberation Labs to manufacture lactoferrin in the US and is currently negotiating with other contract manufacturers. Liberation Labs will expand its fermentation capacity with a new facility in Indiana.
However, scaling biotech manufacturing is a long process, which might hit snags as venture capital and other funding fluctuate year-to-year, he added.
“Once we have sufficient sales, we can totally build our own first, second, third facility, which will then drive the cost of goods further down, but it is not going to happen in two months,” he elaborated.
Biotech companies are adjusting their fundraising strategy amid lower levels of VC funding, Pacas noted.
“If you can get positive externalities in terms of forms of government grants or even long-term debt, I think it is absolutely needed because ultimately, you are doing a public service. You are decarbonizing the economy and basically offering a much more reliable supply chain of an essential good for the public and knocking on VC doors and collecting $1 million here, $1 million there is pretty hard,” Pacas elaborated.
