HUMAN MILK OLIGOSACCHARIDES MARKET ANALYSIS

The high costs associated with the production of Human Milk Oligosaccharides (HMOs) is a major factor restraining the growth of the human milk oligosaccharides market. Producing HMOs requires complex extraction and purification processes to isolate them from human breast milk in sufficient quantities and purity for commercial applications. These technical challenges result in significantly high production costs. The extraction process involves several separation steps like centrifugation, ultrafiltration, and column chromatography which are costly. The concentrations of HMOs in breast milk are also relatively low, generally between 0.5-1.5 grams per liter. This necessitates processing very large volumes of milk to obtain gram-level quantities of the specific HMOs needed. Further purification steps then need to be carried out to remove proteins, fatty acids, and other components from the milk to obtain highly purified HMO preparations. All these technical operations and the need for specialized equipment increases production costs substantially.

Opportunities: Development of alternative production methods

Development of alternative production methods could unlock tremendous opportunities in the human milk oligosaccharides market. Currently, HMOs can only be harvested from human breast milk in limited quantities, restricting their availability and applications. However, emerging biosynthetic and fermentation technologies now allow for scalable, reliable production of HMOs outside the human body. This shifting production landscape is poised to massively accelerate innovation and adoption of HMOs in various industries over the coming years.