Amyris Launches Leading Hand Sanitizer and Receives Initial Positive Result for Vaccine Adjuvant
by Jim Lane
In California comes the news that synthetic biology leader Amyris (AMRS) is stepping out to help fight COVID-19. Amyris may be more well known for its sustainable ingredients for the Health & Wellness, Clean Beauty and Flavors & Fragrances markets, but as you all know, things have changed a lot over the last few months and Amyris is now launching a hand sanitizer to help address the high demand triggered by COVID-19. Additionally, the company has completed initial testing of a leading vaccine adjuvant.
Amyris is leveraging its existing capabilities to fast track the availability of a safe...
Impossible Foods Launches Impossible Pork
by Helena Tavares Kennedy
It began with beef without the cow, even leather without the cow, and now we wave goodbye to pork from the pig with the news that Impossible Foods has launched pork made from plants.
Not only that, but Impossible Foods is going beyond the Impossible Whopper and expanding their work with Burger King in a new Impossible Croissan’which using Impossible Sausage made from plants as well. That will be available in only some Burger King locations starting in late January.
What’s in it?
Impossible Foods says their new pork protein is mostly made with soy protein, coconut oil, sunflower oil....
Amyris Inks $100M+ Biofene Supply Pact
Jim Lane In California, the Eco-Emirs of Emeryville, Amyris (AMRS) executed a five year Biofene supply agreement with a global nutraceuticals company. Upping the ante from January This new, long-term agreement replaces the parties’ one-year purchase agreement, which was previously announced on January 4, 2016. More on that deal here. Under the new supply agreement, the mystery customer has agreed to a larger Biofene purchase in 2016 with an expected revenue contribution of approximately $9 million and to minimum annual purchase commitments in each of the remaining years of the agreement. In addition, under the new agreement, Amyris...
Amyris In The Age Of Rapid Change
by Jim Lane
Last month, Amyris (AMRS) and Chevron (CVX) announced that Novvi and Chevron have entered into an agreement to jointly develop and bring to market novel renewable base oil technologies. Novvi is Amyris’ JV with Cosan (CZZ) to produce targeted hydrocarbon molecules from plant sugar for automotive, industrial, marine, and construction applications at unbeatable economics. Think lubricants for engines and machines.
Since launching its first commercial production in 2014, Novvi has been steadily increasing its base oil production to keep up with robust and growing demand for a variety of automotive, marine and industrial applications. Meanwhile, Chevron has one of...
Why Traffic Lights Are Turning Green For BioAmber
Jim Lane As many technologies pivot or delay, one train keeps chugging on its route to biosuccinic acid, and markets like BDO, resins and polyols. What is it about the business model that keeps on working? What can every integrated biorefinery learn from its approach? In Minneapolis, BioAmber (BIOA) just announced a contract to supply a minimum of 80% of PTTMCC Biochem’s total bio-succinic acid needs until the end of 2017. PTTMCC Biochem is a joint venture established by Mitsubishi Chemical and PTT, Thailand’s largest oil and gas company, to produce and sell polybutylene succinate (PBS),...
Solazyme’s Not-So-Puzzling Rebranding
Jim Lane Solazyme undergoes Focus Reassignment Surgery and re-emerges as TerraVia. Industrials to spin off, nutrition the focus now. The what, the why, and the “why now?” In California, Solazyme (SZYM) said that it is now focusing exclusively on food, nutrition and specialty ingredients, renaming the company TerraVia. Having elevated CEO and co-founder Jonathan Wolfson to the Executive Chairman post, the company says it is on the hunt for a food-business CEO, and has raised $28M from a group of foodie investors including Glenhill Capital, VMG Partners, PowerPlant Ventures, ARTIS Ventures, Simon Equities and several influential food industry...
Amyris’ Mysterious Partner
Jim Lane In California, Amyris (AMRS) has a new partner, described fetchingly yet with near-to-complete vagueness as a “a leader in food ingredients and nutraceuticals” which is roughly as helpful as describing a person as “someone who enjoys ice cream”. Some ice cream there is, nevertheless, in this agreement, which will bring a short-term collaboration investment of $10 million, an equity investment of up to $20 million at $1.40 per share, and $100 million in annual revenue starting in 2017 connected to the production and cost improvement of fermentation molecules. One thing, and the only one, we discover...
BioAmber Sets Price Range for IPO
Jim Lane 8 million share offering at $15-$17 aims to raise $128 million. “We are selling 8,000,000 shares of common stock,” begins BioAmber’s latest SEC update, written in IPO-legalese. “The initial public offering price of our common stock is expected to be between $15.00 and $17.00 per share, which is the equivalent of €11.48 and €13.01 per share, based on an assumed Bloomberg BFIX Rate for USDEUR at the pricing of this offering. If completed, it would be the first successful IPO in the sector since Ceres (CERE) and Renewable Energy Group (REGI)...
Novozymes Ignites Yeast Wars
Novozymes (Copenhagen:NZYM-B; OTC:NVZMY) moved into yeast this week with a new organism, Innova Drive.
It’s saccharomyces cerevisae — the workhouse yeast that has been powering wine fermentation since the days of Noah and the Ark. But here’s a new strain engineered to cut fermentation times up to two hours, and yield boosts of up to two percent.
A 2% yield increase and a 5% faster rate of production — let’s illustrate it — would mean something like 7.1 million gallons per year of more ethanol from the same standard 100 million gallon nameplate plant. Retailing at up to $10 million dollars, per year (yes,...
Biofuels & Biobased Earnings Roundup: Amyris
by Jim Lane
The Top Line. In California, Amyris (AMRS) reported Q2 GAAP revenue for the second quarter of 2018 of $24.8 million, compared with $25.7 million for the second quarter of 2017. Grants and collaborations revenue was $11.4 million for the second quarter of 2018 compared with $10.3 million for the year-ago period. The company noted that Q2 revenue was $24.8 million compared with the same period in 2017 of $21.7 million when adjusted for the low margin product sales on contracts assigned to DSM (DSM.AS). This reflects 15% growth on an absolute basis. GAAP net loss for the first half was $89.1...
BioAmber Gets Little Love From Investors on Valentine’s Day
by Debra Fiakas
Management of sustainable chemical developer BioAmber (BIOA: NYSE; BIOA: TSX) have not been feeling much love from the capital markets. The BioAmber team just wants some consideration for its proprietary platform for production of bio-based succinic acid. Historically succinic acid has been produced from fossil fuel and sold as an intermediate input for use in drug compounds, agriculture and food production. BioAmber has fine tuned a fermentation process to transform organic materials such as dextrose sugars into a bio-succinic acid.
BioAmber’s woes began last fall when the New York Stock Exchange sent the company a notice of non-compliance with NYSE...
Gevo: Are We There Yet?
by Debra Fiakas CFA The renewable chemicals and biofuel company Gevo, Inc. (GEVO: Nasdaq) is scheduled to report fourth quarter 2013 financial results on March 25th. Analysts have a couple of weeks to prepare questions for management during the earnings conference call. Top on the list has to be got to be about Gevo’s recent agreement to license its novel isobutanol technology to Porta Hnos of Argentina. Porta Hnos is a well established ethanol producer so if the license is consummated, it is expected that this partner has the ability to execute on plans to produce isobutanol for...
BioAmber’s $150 Million IPO: The 10-Minute Version
Jim Lane A first-to-market leader in bio-succinic acid comes to the public markets with its IPO. Can BioAmber translate a lead in succinic acid’s smallish market into leadership in a vast array of high-priced renewable chemicals? Here’s our 10-minute version of the BioAmber IPO, with a translation of the risks into English. In Minnesota, BioAmber has filed an S-1 registration statement for a proposed $150 million initial public offering. The number of shares to be offered in the proposed offering and the price range for the offering have not yet been determined. The lead book-running managers for...
Dyadic Sells Industrial Technology Business To Dupont
Jim Lane As Dyadic cashes out of industrial biotech and retains a C1 license for pharma, DSM and Syngenta also announce a partnership. Companies are girding their loins for the long haul. The Digest takes a look, In Florida, DuPont (DD) Industrial Biosciences will acquire substantially all of the enzyme and technology assets Dyadic’s (DYAI) Industrial Technology business for $75 million, including Dyadic’s C1 platform, a technology for producing enzyme products used in a broad range of industries. DuPont has granted back to Dyadic co-exclusive rights to the C1 technology for use in human and animal pharmaceutical...
More Gevolution
Jim Lane The results from Gevo’s (GEVO) 4th quarter are in, and a worth a look-see, not only for fans of isobutanol and its prospects. Also for a look at how this member of the 2010-12 IPO group of companies is crossing the multiple Valleys of Death that have arrayed before it. In the fourth quarter of 2014, Gevo continued to progress the commercial operation of isobutanol at Luverne under the Side-by-Side mode of production (SBS), meeting its stated milestone in December 2014 of producing greater than 50K gallons of isobutanol in one month. This achievement, Gevo notes,...
Interview With Dan Oh, CEO Of Renewable Energy Group
Jim Lane Leading a series this week, “The Strategics Speak", in which we’ll look at what a number of major strategic investors see in the landscape relating to industrial, energy and agricultural investment, Biofuels Digest visited with Dan Oh, CEO of Renewable Energy Group (REGI), which has long been the US’s leading independent biodiesel producer but in recent years has steadily diversified and expanded operations. In many ways, REG is the entire industrial biotech business in a nutshelll. They’re fermentation (through REG Life Sciences), and thermocatalytic (through REG Geismar and their extensive biodiesel business). They use both...
