Scientific excellence presents itself in many forms, and this year's winners know why. Both advance the cause of industry with branded products built upon rich clinical histories, and both bring game-changing technologies to the manufacture of some of industry's bestsellers. The two companies profiled below embody the notion of scientific excellence in all its manifold guises.

Tishcon: Enhancing the Bioavailability of CoQ10

Ask manufacturers what they look for in an ingredient these days and, chances are, one question will rise to the top of that list: How well is it absorbed?

“Back in the mid-‘90s, nobody paid attention to absorption,” says Raj Chopra, CEO of New York- based contract manufacturer Tishcon. Coenzyme Q10, an oil-soluble compound critical in fueling mitochondria, brought the topic into sharp relief with its high component costs and tendency to flush right through the body. “People were just shoveling in CoQ10 and most of it was ending up in the toilet bowl,” says Chopra. “We started looking at how to modify the physical structure of CoQ10 to make it more bioavailable.”

Fifteen years later, Chopra is credited not only with vast improvements in CoQ10 absorption rates, but also with bolstering the compound's credibility among physicians, now a key market. “The scientific advancements achieved by Tishcon have given rise to further research, understanding and acceptance of the benefits of CoQ10,” says Scott Steinford, president of ZMC-USA, a major supplier of CoQ10.

Trained as a pharmacist in India, Chopra landed at Columbia University on scholarship at age 24. Armed with a master's in industrial pharmacy, he went to work for a supplement contract manufacturer in New York, just as the industry was beginning its ascent. When his employer relocated, Chopra rallied five colleagues with savings to invest, applied for a Small Business Administration loan, and founded Tishcon — primarily as a manufacturer for wholesalers and mail-order companies — in 1976 with a half-million dollars.

Today, the company boasts 275 employees and $52 million in annual revenues, roughly half derived from manufacturing supplements for other companies. As its tagline suggests, Tishcon has evolved into much more than a contract manufacturer, however, boasting nine patents and a reputation as “the bioavailability experts.”

In 1996, Tishcon acquired exclusive rights to a patented technology called BioSolv, which allows for the creation of water-soluble softgels with rapid absorption rates. Combining BioSolv with company efforts to create CoQ10 at a smaller particle size, Tishcon rolled out Q-Gel — the first bioavailability-enhanced CoQ10 supplement in the United States — in 1997.

Chopra and his team next went to work sponsoring trials that pit Q-Gel against competitors. In-vitro, animal and human trials all showed impressive results. “You get about three times higher levels of absorption with Q-Gel than you do with run-of-the-mill CoQ10 supplements,” says Chopra.

Chopra has since published 15 papers studying absorption and clinical applications of CoQ10. And the company now offers a whole line of branded, bio-enhanced CoQ10 products that account for that other half of revenues.

In 2009, Tishcon launched Active Q, a highly absorbable form of ubiquinol, the active antioxidant form of CoQ10 believed more similar to compounds found naturally in the body. “Tishcon has continued to push, and drive, and pioneer in relation to CoQ10,” says Anthony Almada, founder of IMAGINutrition, an industry think tank and consultancy. “That's raised everyone else's game.”

Tishcon has also been instrumental in boosting the credibility of CoQ10 among healthcare providers. “When I first started looking at CoQ10, it received very little respect in the medical community,” says Chopra. “My pharmacist friends looked down on it as snake oil.” The supplement now goes hand-in-hand with statin prescriptions in a vast majority of conventional practices.

Chopra lobbied the U.S. Pharmacopeia for years to produce a monograph on CoQ10, and the standards setter finally obliged in 2001. Tishcon also successfully applied to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for orphan drug status for Q-Gel's treatment of mitochondrial disease — a collection of 300 rare, genetic disorders that impair energy production in the mitochondria. Tishcon has gone on to earn orphan drug designation with its CoQ10 ubiquinol products for the potential treatment of Huntington's chorea and pediatric congestive heart failure. A federally-funded phase III trial is currently underway at four clinical research centers in the United States and Canada.

So what's next for Tishcon, and its tireless, 70-year-old CEO? “There are other molecules that are even worse than CoQ10 when it comes to absorption,” Chopra says, noting that Tishcon is now exploring ways to boost bioavailability of curcumin, L-carnitine and alpha-lipoic acid. “My hope and prayer is to someday have a whole line of neutraceuticals that are head and shoulders above what's currently available.”

Danisco: Excellence in Probiotics

Its ingredients can be found in every second ice cream and cheese product, every third box of detergent, and every fourth loaf of bread produced globally. It employs 6,800 people in 40 countries, boasts more than 10,000 customers worldwide, and brings in roughly $3 billion annually. Yet, in the world of probiotics, ingredient supplier Danisco is hardly a household word.

“Danisco has been a quiet giant,” notes Anthony Almada of IMAGINutrition. “It has one of the most researched probiotic strains in the world, and has really raised the bar when it comes to scientifically assessing what probiotics can do in humans. Still, people don't know much about it.”

That might soon change as the 20-year-old, Denmark-based company rolls out a host of new condition-specific probiotic strains and blends in its branded HOWARU line, and further extends its reach into supplements and functional foods with additional strains and innovative stabilization technologies.

All of this stems from a long-standing commitment to solid research, both by Danisco and by its recent acquisitions, according to Scott Bush, vice president of marketing for Danisco's Health and Nutrition Division. “We are now seeing the results of our decision to spend heavily on clinical work,” says Bush, noting that while probiotics remain a small portion of Danisco's overall sales, that's poised to change. “Probiotics is one of the fastest growing businesses within Danisco. It's very important strategically as we strive to become a bigger player in health and nutrition.”

Known best as a supplier of enzymes, natural sweeteners, emulsifiers, pectin and gums for processed foods, Danisco came to probiotics in 2001, when it licensed two strains — now contained in its HOWARU Bifido and HOWARU Rhamnosus branded ingredients — from the New Zealand Dairy Board. Three years later, Danisco paid $430 million to acquire Rhodia Food Ingredients — a leading probiotics producer.

With the acquisition came staff, including Bush, with three decades of expertise in the field of probiotics, and exclusive marketing rights to Lb acidophilus NCFM, one of the most studied probiotics strains in the world. Danisco got to work, using a novel approach to research that would turn out to be a game-changer for the probiotics industry.

“There was a one-strain-does-it-all mentality out there for a long time,” says Bush. “Danisco was the first company to embrace a condition-specific approach to probiotic health benefits.” Seven years later, Danisco has sponsored 18 human clinical studies and collaborated on four more, testing specific strains for everything from gut health, to cold and flu prevention, to allergy relief, to gum health. Armed with solid research, the company is now taking new branded formulas to market, and emphasizing ones that have yet to receive the attention they deserve.

In July, 2009, a study of 326 children published in the prestigious journal Pediatrics showed that kids taking Danisco's HOWARU Protect probiotic formula (a blend of Lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM and Bifidobacterium lactis Bi-07) reduced their fever, coughing and runny nose incidence significantly; missed fewer school days; and took fewer antibiotics. Shortly thereafter, Danisco made the formula commercially available. It is now present in immune-support supplements on the shelf in New Zealand, Australia and Malaysia, and company officials expect to see products containing HOWARU Protect on U.S. shelves in 2011.

Another 2009 study, published in the Journal of Medical Microbiology found that, when patients suffering from gut stress — often from antibiotic use — took Danisco's HOWARU Restore formula (a different blend of lactobacillus and bifidobacterium strains), beneficial bacteria levels were quickly restored to pre-stress levels.

In addition to its pre-formulated, ready-to-market HOWARU line, Danisco also produces an older, markedly less-hyped FloraFIT line of custom probiotics, aimed at manufacturers “looking to develop their own unique formulation,” says Bush. To date, it makes up the bulk of the company's probiotic sales.

Specific strains aside, Danisco has moved the field of probiotics forward in another major way, according to Almada. “Danisco has been able to improve the stability of these bugs in ways that make them more consumer friendly and green,” he says.

Armed with an exclusive license from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, Danisco developed stabilizing technology that allows manufacturers to create probiotic products that can remain unrefrigerated on the shelf and stay fresh for as long as 18 months. “Doing a clinical study is great,” says Bush, “but if you don't have strains that you can deliver in stable format to the consumer, it doesn't matter a whole lot. As probiotics start to move into food, drug and mass, refrigeration is more of an issue. To really market quality probiotics that meet label claim at the end of shelf life, you need to be room-temperature stable.”

Between its FloraFit line, its HOWARU line, and its stabilization techniques, Danisco touches a clear majority of probiotic products produced in the United States. As the company moves forward scientifically, using genomics to explore more effective, stable strains, there will no doubt be more news, and more market share, to come. “We are starting to really understand, mechanistically, how and why probiotics work, and this can pave the way for more targeted applications,” says Bush.