POWERED BY A PARENT’S LOVE

The alarming link between animal proteins and climate change and his youngest son's painful allergy to cow's milk protein prompted the founder of PFx Biotech to begin the journey of producing human milk proteins using precision fermentation and crafting dairy alternatives, without allergens or environmental impact.

22 Dec 2025

EIT Food South

2 min reading time

PFx Biotech is a young Portuguese company founded in 2022 with the vision of providing a very nutritious, health promoting alternatives to cow's milk protein. By producing highly bioactive alternative human milk proteins through precision fermentation, PFx is boldly creating a new category of ingredients that will support and boost the immune system

COMMITMENT TO THE PLANET'S FUTURE

Driven by his son’s well-being and a commitment to the planet’s future, Dr. Ali Osman, PFx Biotech CEO, embarked on a journey and founded the company alongside Diana Oliveira as Head of R&D-Bioactivity and Harry Baraza as COO. In words of Osman, “the products that we are building will not only help with kids health, but we also plan our products to reach older adults and athletes looking for nutritious food options that contain animal-free proteins with significant health benefits, such as immune-boosting, anti-inflammation and anti-infection properties.”

THE SCIENCE BEHIND IT

PFx Biotech uses a novel systems biology approach to create a platform for producing highly bioactive human milk protein ingredients via a scalable precision fermentation process. “The fermentation process that we are working with, alongside our proprietary systems biology platform, will allow us to express proteins with a high enabling a cost-effective production process, while keeping the same structure and functionality as proteins found in breast milk.”

THE CATALYST FOR SUCCESS

Commercially, the company has made remarkable progress with many international key players in the dairy and specialty ingredients industries showing great interest in PFx Biotech’s solutions and placing sample orders. Besides, one of the proteins is currently entering the scale-up phase while they are developing other two proteins further. Last year, the founders were part of the EIT Food Seedbed Incubator cohort, and as an immediate next step, they plan to expand both the team and the business operation. For this, they are convinced of the power of open innovation and working collaboratively with partners to push the boundaries of future food innovation and production. , “Although the founders of PFx come with a wealth of experience from the food and the ingredient industries, we certainly believe that networking, open innovation, and being part of thriving ecosystems are the catalyst for success. This is why we trusted and believed in EIT Food, and this is why we will continue the connection with EIT and its thriving ecosystem.” Adds Dr. Osman.