News

Evolva completes Roquette collaboration

5 Nov 2015

Evolva has announced the successful completion of the collaboration with Roquette, which started in January 2012. The project focused, the company noted, on an ingredient with important applications in food products.

Evolva has announced the successful completion of the collaboration with Roquette, which started in January 2012. The project focused, the company noted, on an ingredient with important applications in food products.

After delivering an initial yeast strain in May 2015, Evolva says it has now provided Roquette with a final, improved version which should enable a leaner and more efficient fermentation route to the target food ingredient. The improved strain is said to exceed the predefined productivity goals by between 10% and 65%. This concludes Evolva’s contribution to the project and Roquette will be responsible for the further steps towards commercial production.

Evolva is entitled to a final payment within the next few weeks, based on the value added by Evolva’s production route. The payment amounts to CHF1.2 million and has no impact on the financial outlook for 2015.

“We are very pleased with the contribution Evolva made to our never ending drive to get better and go further,” said Thierry Marcel, Executive Vice President Research & Development of Roquette. “Evolva’s dedicated team of scientists came up with an elegant and efficient production route to this important ingredient. We may turn to Evolva again in future.”

“I am very proud of the fact that Evolva delivered this successful outcome,” said Neil Goldsmith, CEO of Evolva. “We over-delivered, while staying within the agreed time frame and budget. This is an excellent example of us providing our partners with a competitive edge.”

After the completion of the Roquette project, Evolva says it is now internally pursuing the development of an additional ingredient. This additional ingredient is aimed at a very different application area, but derives from a pathway, related to Roquette’s target product. Whilst early, the development is said to build upon the high performance strains developed during the collaboration with Roquette.