Viablife has won the inaugural Cosmetics Business Innovation Awards (CBIAs) for its 100% biobased niacinamide, certified by the USDA and produced through an AI-driven synthetic biology pathway that the company has already scaled to industrial volumes.

The B2B-focused awards programme covers ingredients, packaging, contract manufacturing, technology, testing, and regulatory and compliance across the global cosmetics and personal care supply chain. Viablife took the top honour on the strength of three judging criteria: scientific ambition, market impact, and contribution to a more environmentally responsible and sustainable beauty industry.

Why niacinamide was the problem ingredient to solve?

Niacinamide ranks among the most widely used and trusted actives in cosmetics, valued for its anti-aging and cellular-energy properties. Formulators know its performance; procurement teams know its footprint.

Historically, conventional synthesis of niacinamide has carried two structural liabilities. The chemistry generates a number of unwanted byproducts, and it demands significant energy input. Together, these pose environmental and safety concerns that sit uneasily alongside the ingredient's clean-image positioning in skin care and personal care lines.

What did Viablife actually build?

Rather than optimise the existing chemical route, Viablife used AI-driven synthetic biology to design an entirely new biosynthetic production pathway for niacinamide. The output carries USDA certification as 100% biobased — a claim that matters for brands building verified sustainability positions and for buyers screening suppliers on feedstock origin.

Judge McDougall highlighted that the process has now been successfully scaled to industry, calling out its significant market impact in enabling brands to adopt more sustainable production approaches while maintaining the efficacy and performance of the active.

McDougall commended Viablife's scientific innovation and real-world impact, emphasising that its significance extends beyond the science itself to the possibilities it unlocks for the future — particularly as the cosmetics industry shifts towards more sustainable production.

For formulators, the practical point is straightforward: the biobased version preserves the active's performance profile, so reformulation work and stability revalidation should be minimal for brands switching supply. For procurement, a USDA-certified biobased claim on a high-volume active strengthens sustainability documentation without compromising on the INCI-level functionality buyers already specify.

What does this mean for the supply chain?

The win signals where ingredient innovation is heading: AI-designed biosynthetic routes for commodity actives whose legacy chemistry carries environmental baggage. Niacinamide is a bellwether ingredient — if a biosynthetic pathway can be scaled here at competitive industrial volumes, similar approaches can plausibly follow for other high-volume synthetics in the formulation toolbox.

The award also raises the bar for suppliers competing on sustainability claims. A 100% biobased certification backed by a demonstrated industrial-scale process is a harder evidentiary standard than carbon-offset or waste-reduction narratives, and buyers are likely to start asking for comparable proof.

The full judges reveal of the winners of the Cosmetics Business Innovation Awards 2026 is available to watch; the next data point to track is whether Viablife extends the certified biobased platform to further actives and which brands move first to specify it on label-adjacent sustainability claims.