Mar 4 2011
Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS) announced today that it has entered into a contract manufacturing agreement with Antibióticos, S.A. Under this arrangement, Antibióticos will work with Amyris to produce farnesene at its facilities in León, Spain; the produced farnesene will be owned and distributed by Amyris.
This is Amyris’s fourth farnesene production agreement. The first was to establish a joint venture with Grupo São Martinho at their flagship mill, Usina São Martinho. In addition, Amyris has contracted for production capacity at the facilities of Biomin GMBH and Tate & Lyle Ingredients Americas, Inc., an affiliate of Tate & Lyle PLC. Finally, Amyris has entered into an agreement with Glycotech, Inc. to provide finishing services to convert the Amyris Biofene into other products, including squalane, lubricants and diesel.
Amyris and Antibióticos commenced test fermentation runs in January 2011, and, based on the successful outcome of those production runs, are proceeding with expanded production.
“This agreement with Antibióticos should allow us to reach our target initial production levels and meet customer demand for our near-term product offerings,” said John Melo, CEO of Amyris. “We have been very impressed with the world-class technical expertise in aseptic fermentation at Antibióticos, and are looking forward to leverage this as we build up our commercial production capability.”
“This agreement merges our experience and technical capacity with Amyris’s technology and processes, and forms another important step in the strategy of diversifying our business portfolio,” said Daniele Pucci Di Benisichi, CEO of Antibióticos. “Our initial work with Amyris has validated their technology in our facility. Additionally, we see a strong match between the two companies’ values and vision. Antibióticos follows a very demanding and selective approach for new projects, and we are proud to use this cutting-edge technology.”
Source: http://www.amyris.com/