Lesaffre has announced the full acquisition of Gnosis, an Italian biotechnology company specialized in the development, manufacturing and sale of fermentation-derived ingredients and natural finished products for use in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, veterinary and cosmetic industries, three years after acquiring a majority shareholding in the company.

Founded in 1989, Gnosis has experienced strong growth since its inception. It is now said to possess skills and expertise in microbial fermentation and in the recovery and purification of molecules derived from yeasts and bacteria. Gnosis owns two GMP manufacturing sites (Sant Antonino in Switzerland and Pisticci in Italy) and two commercial offices (USA and China). Its offices and R&D facility are based at Desio, near Milan.

Lesaffre created the business unit Lesaffre Human Care in 2007. Its mission has been to develop and supply ingredients from yeast and bacteria fermentation to the global human care industries. From nutritional and fortified yeasts to yeast fractions, probiotic yeasts and bacteria, or pure molecules, Lesaffre Human Care targets a wide range of applications: digestive health, immunity enhancement, joints and liver health, woman’s health vegetarian support, overall wellbeing and personal care.

By completing the full acquisition of Gnosis, Lesaffre says it is combining Gnosis and Lesaffre Human Care teams into a single unit to propose a unified range of products and services to its nutritional ingredients and human health customers and partners and to continue its growth in this fast-growing environment.

Antoine Baule, Lesaffres Chief Executive Officer, said: "For the past three years, we have developed the cooperation between Lesaffre and Gnosis teams to become today a unique provider of products and services that are increasingly innovative and closely address our customer’s needs in the Nutrition and Health sectors. I would like to thank Renzo Berna, former CEO of Gnosis, for his relentless dedication to building a successful company, and my respect for the great accomplishment of his purpose.”

Renzo Berna, former CEO of Gnosis, said: “Developing Gnosis has been an exciting challenge. After 25 years, Gnosis has become a reference on the market able to design and manufacture fermentation purified metabolites as Health Care Active Ingredients for the nutraceutical and pharmaceutical markets. I am convinced that Lesaffre, a family group known and recognised internationally for its professionalism and the quality of its products and services will take this company even further forwards. I wish Marc Philouze, the General Manager of this new entity a lot of success for the promising future."