Biotech Numi raises 3 million euros to produce breast milk “in vitro”

Breast milk… which it is not. The French biotechnology company Numi announced this Wednesday that it had completed a first fundraising of 3 million euros that will allow it to develop its breast milk project “in vitro”, that is, from breast cells grown in the laboratory. “It is an alternative” to infant milk, a substitute made from cow’s milk, for all women “who cannot breastfeed” or do not want to, explains in BFM the president and co-founder of Numi, Eden Banon-Lagrange. . Business set.

To produce this “in vitro breast milk,” Numi isolates human breast cells before growing them in a nutritious environment to multiply. Then, “we stimulate lactation in the laboratory and recover the milk produced” by the cultured mammary cells, “with the aim of bringing it as close as possible to the complexity of breast milk,” which has “more than 1,500 constituents.” , specifies Eden Banon-Lagrange. The start-up intends to use fundraising to hire scientists and accelerate its research phase.

Global competition

Because biotechnology, for the moment, is only in the first phase of its development. “We have carried out a proof of concept with very interesting results,” says the president of Numi. The sums raised should allow it to optimize its technology and, above all, advance to the next level by guaranteeing the viability of the commercialization of breast milk in vitro. Because there are already numerous competitors, even from the agribusiness giants. Danone especially invested in the Israeli start-up Wilk, which has taken the lead.

Although the start-up is French, the American market is the first one it addresses, being the most favorable to the supply of laboratory-grown breast milk. The United States “has taken the initiative in defining a regulatory framework,” explains the leader, but “we firmly hope that Europe will follow.” Santé Publique France recommends breastfeeding up to six months of age. According to the latest perinatal survey carried out by the national agency, 34.4% of women breastfeed their children after two months of age.