Kyowa Hakko Bio – a subsidiary of Kirin Holdings – has completed its production facility for human milk oligosaccharides (HMOs), located in Rayong Province, Thailand.

The company first announced its plans to build the HMO facility back in 2020. 

Kyowa Hakko Bio built the Thai Kyowa production facility with the support of Kirin Group’s engineering department. Products will be developed within the Kirin Group, aiming to expand its business globally.

HMOs are complex sugar molecules found in breast milk and are said to rarely be found in cow’s milk or milk of other mammalian origins.

Yuki Kanzaki, president and CEO at Kyowa Hakko Bio, commented: “Kirin Holdings has made a major shift to the Health Science domain, an area ranging from food to pharmaceuticals, in order to achieve the Kirin Group Vision 2027 long-term management plan. In this context, Kyowa Hakko Bio should play a central role in the Health Science business.”

She continued: “The role of Thai Kyowa is particularly important, and this new facility is an indispensable production line to meet the global demand for HMOs. Through the production and sale of HMOs, Thai Kyowa will continue to contribute to solving the health issues of infants and young children.”

The production of HMOs will begin this year, with sales to infant formula manufacturers and other customers to start in 2023.

Hiroshi Nagano, president of Thai Kyowa, said: “We believe that HMOs are an important breast milk component for infants and are a material that can help people’s health and quality of life”.

He continued: “In order to contribute to the healthy development and growth of infants around the world, we at Thai Kyowa are committed to the safe and stable production of high-quality HMOs. We will also contribute to regional revitalization by creating jobs in Thailand and aim to be a bridge between Thailand and Japan.”

The project has also been granted investment incentive benefits by the Thai Board of Investment.