NEWS
IN BRIEF
Flamma opens in China Italian CDMO Flamma Group has officially opened its new cGMP plant at Dalian, China, where it has been active for 17 years. The firm said that this aligns with its broader strategy to invest significantly across its global network, including within Italy. It plans to reinvest $ 200 million worldwide over the next five years to increase its capacity, technology and capabilities.
Biosurfactants partnership
Under a new strategic partnership, Kensing will supply Belgian biotech AmphiStar’ s next-generation biosurfactants to the North American personal care market. Kensing is a producer of surfactants in its own right and claims to be the global leader in upcycled plant-based vitamin E and sterols.
The two firms will further combine to develop regionally sourced circular feedstocks from biobased waste and sidestreams, such as plant oils from Kensing’ s own production, with a near-term plan to fully onshore production in the US. Finally, they will also co-develop AmphiStar’ s recently launched library of 80 + products from its‘ designer’ biosurfactant platform technology for personal care, agrochemical and HI & I applications.
AmphiStar makes surfactants by microbial fermentation of repurposed agro-food side streams, combining advanced synthetic biology, waste processing and continuous biomanufacturing principles. In a recent lifecycle study, they achieved four- and 18-fold reductions in
CO 2 equivalent emissions and water deprivation respectively, plus 5.5- and 15.5-fold lower impacts on human health and the environment compared to conventional chemicalbased and existing biosurfactants.
CABB in algae biorefinery deal
CABB has agreed a strategic partnership to establish a first-in-kind algae biorefinery at its site at Kokkola Industrial Park in Finland, which is described as“ Northern Europe’ s largest ecosystem of the inorganic chemical industry”. This will use Origin by Ocean’ s patented technology to process sargassum, an invasive brown seaweed, into high-value ingredients such as alginate, fucoidan and biomass residue.
Origin by Ocean ultimately plans to build biorefineries in the Caribbean Sea, closer to where up to 40 million tonnes / year of biomass sargassum blooms, causing disruption to tourism and industry. The company believes that the markets than can benefit immediately from algae-based ingredients, including cosmetics and detergents, are collectively worth $ 220 billion. It is already working with multinational consumer goods companies and Finnish fashion and lifestyle companies, such as Marimekko.
GL Chemtec completes kilo lab North American CDMO GL Chemtec has announced the completion of a cGMP kilo lab at an undisclosed location. The facility is now fully operational and accepting new projects. Key features include two specialised rooms designed to meet ISO 8 particulate and microbiological specifications, enhanced quality control systems and significantly increased production capacity at multi-kilo scale.
Ingenza relocates to grow Following a strategic review, UKbased CRDMO Ingenza is relocating to the Moubray Building at Edinburgh Technopole, still within the Midlothian Science Zone. This will more than double Ingenza’ s operational footprint, notably enabling it to scale up manufacturing to 100L, paving the way for the production of first-inhuman materials as well as expanding the R & D laboratories.
AI optimises cross-coupling Symeres has used the software of Yoneda Labs to optimise transition metal-catalysed cross-coupling reactions, focusing on streamlining the reaction optimisation process to raise yields. By using advanced predictive modelling and data-driven insights, it identified four diverse reaction conditions with in situ yields of > 90 %,“ significantly accelerating the development process”, the company said.
JUL / AUG 2025 SPECCHEMONLINE. COM
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