BRAIN AG acquires a minority share in Enzymicals AG

BRAIN AG, one of the leading European white biotechnology companies, has acquired a minority share in Enzymicals AG. This biotechnology company was founded in 2009 as a spin-off by a management team from the workgroup led by Prof. Dr. Uwe Bornscheuer from Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University Greifswald with support from the EXIST-Programme of the Federal Ministry for Economy and Technology (BMWi). The strategic investment of BRAIN AG in the Greifswald-based company that specializes in biocatalytic production of fine and special chemicals as well as enzyme production enhances the previous activities of both companies in the biocatalysis sector.

“We see our strategic commitment to Enzymicals as a further step towards establishing white biotechnology as a future technology in Europe, forging the way towards biologizing key industries and the sustainable optimization of industrial processes”

Biocatalysis employs enzymes as catalysts for chemical reactions. This process is increasingly replacing classical chemical synthetic pathways in technological processes.

BRAIN owns extensive enzyme libraries facilitating rapid process development and optimization. The company from Greifswald focusses on producing and selling fine and specialty chemicals as well as the relevant biocatalysts and process development. BRAIN has now acquired a minority share in Enzymicals in order to form a strategic alliance, which brings together complementary modules of the value chain for biocatalytic production of fine and specialty chemicals. This step follows a long tradition of successful collaboration between BRAIN and the cofounder of Enzymicals AG, Prof. Dr. Uwe Bornscheuer and provides a broader commercial platform for this collaboration.

"We see our strategic commitment to Enzymicals as a further step towards establishing white biotechnology as a future technology in Europe, forging the way towards biologizing key industries and the sustainable optimization of industrial processes", explains Dr. Jürgen Eck, CTO of BRAIN AG. "For many years BRAIN has been successfully cooperating with Prof. Dr. Bornscheuer and his team in the field of biocatalysis. This has already generated many innovative products among various enzyme categories such as esterases, laccases and monooxygenases. Our objective is to continue and intensify these activities with Enzymicals AG."

"We are delighted that the renowned BRAIN AG has acquired a minority share in Enzymicals AG. For us, this is not just a validation of our technological expertise and business model. This step also opens up the possibility of using some of the proprietary enzymes from BRAIN to support our own developments. This is an useful addition to our portfolio of biocatalysts which includes Baeyer-Villiger-monooxygenases and recombinant isoenzymes of Pig Liver Esterase", explains Dr. Ulf Menyes, CEO of Enzymicals.

"This commitment by BRAIN AG places Enzymicals AG, which was founded as a spin-off by members of my research group, in a position to be able to employ many unique enzymes and enzyme categories from the BRAIN BioArchive to extend the portfolio of biocatalytically produced fine and special chemicals. This will intensify and boost the business activities of Enzymicals", adds Prof. Dr. Uwe Bornscheuer, chairman of the Enzymicals AG advisory board.

SOURCE BRAIN AG