Evonik achieves major biotech break­through with a new anim­al-free and fer­ment­a­tion-based col­la­gen platform

Evonik today announced the devel­op­ment of an advanced col­la­gen plat­form that is made via fer­ment­a­tion-based pro­cesses and devoid of anim­al- or human-derived mater­i­als. The recom­bin­ant tech­no­logy will, for the first time, provide phar­ma­ceut­ic­al, med­ic­al, cell cul­ture and tis­sue engin­eer­ing mar­kets with a highly sol­uble, ultra-pure form of col­la­gen that is safe, sus­tain­able and com­mer­cially scal­able. ​“This is argu­ably our biggest innov­a­tion break­through in recent years: a fer­ment­a­tion-based col­la­gen plat­form that can effect­ively sub­sti­tute the use of anim­al-derived col­la­gen in phar­ma­ceut­ic­al, med­ic­al, and cell cul­ture mar­kets.” said Dr. Thomas Rier­mei­er, SVP and Gen­er­al Man­ager for the Health Care busi­ness line of Evonik. ​“We look for­ward to work­ing with cus­tom­ers to devel­op the next-gen­er­a­tion col­la­gen products with an improved safety pro­file.” ​“Bio­tech­no­logy is an import­ant lever for growth and innov­a­tion with­in Evonik Nutri­tion & Care that lever­ages our core com­pet­en­cies across fer­ment­a­tion, bio­ma­ter­i­als and product indus­tri­al­iz­a­tion,“ said Johann-Cas­par Gam­melin, Chair­man of the Board of Man­age­ment of Evonik Nutri­tion & Care. The new col­la­gen plat­form strongly com­ple­ments oth­er recent fer­ment­a­tion-driv­en biotech break­throughs that have been pion­eered by Evonik, includ­ing bios­ur­fact­ants for house­hold and cos­met­ic applic­a­tions (rham­no­l­ipids) and omega‑3 fatty acids from nat­ur­al mar­ine algae for anim­al nutri­tion (Veramar­is). Evonik’s pro­pri­et­ary col­la­gen plat­form fea­tures a triple helix struc­ture and oth­er bio­lo­gic­al prop­er­ties that mim­ic many of the attrib­utes of nat­ur­al col­la­gen so it can reli­ably inter­act with cells and tis­sues and be read­ily absorbed or remod­elled by the body. Anim­al-sourced col­la­gen, cur­rently the main source of col­la­gen for use in life sci­ences, can be asso­ci­ated with batch-to-batch vari­ab­il­ity, poten­tial trans­mis­sion of dis­eases or patho­gens, adverse immun­o­gen­ic or aller­gic reac­tions, and non-sus­tain­able sourcing meth­ods. Evonik’s col­la­gen is pro­duced under con­trolled con­di­tions via a fer­ment­a­tion-based pro­cess. In addi­tion to being sus­tain­able and suit­able for vegan use, this pro­cess deliv­ers an ultra-high level of pur­ity that is eas­ily repro­du­cible at any com­mer­cial scale. Evonik will util­ize its estab­lished fer­ment­a­tion pro­cess tech­no­lo­gies and glob­al man­u­fac­tur­ing net­work to com­mer­cial­ize the col­la­gen plat­form for world­wide use. The Company’s applic­a­tion, for­mu­la­tion and man­u­fac­tur­ing com­pet­en­cies will also be used to help cus­tom­ers devel­op and com­mer­cial­ize their own biofab­ric­ated products. The new col­la­gen plat­form will also sup­port Evonik’s Tis­sue Engin­eer­ing Pro­ject House, which was launched in Singa­pore in 2018 by the Company’s stra­tegic innov­a­tion unit Creav­is, to devel­op advanced bio­ma­ter­i­al solu­tions in regen­er­at­ive medi­cine. Source: Evonik, Press release, 17.03.2020