Novozymes Bids for Bioingredient Supplier GropPep

Novozymes (Bagsvaerd, Denmark, www.novozymes.com) made an offer to acquire the biotechnology company GropPep Ltd (Adelaide, Australia) for DKK 375 million ($65 million) to build its position in supplying ingredients to the biopharmaceutical industry. Novozymes is a major producer of enzymes, including biocatalysts used in pharmaceutical synthesis.

“It is a part of Novozymes strategy to leverage its biotech expertise and technology platform in order to build new business areas within ingredients for the biopharmaceutical industry, and this acquisition is an excellent opportunity to do exactly that,” said Steen Riisgaard, CEO of Novozymes, in a prepared statement. “We see the acquisition of GroPep as an opportunity to expand our offering to the market for ingredients for cell cultures,” he added.

GroPep develops, produces, and markets biologically active proteins for cell-ingredients and research. Novozymes says that GroPep Ltd.’s largest product, the growth factor Long-R3-IGF-1, is currently the only recombinant IGF-1 for cell-culture on the market and accounts for the bulk of GropPep’s sales.

Its bid to acquire GropPrep is Novozymes’ second move this year to build its position in supplying the biotechnology industry. In July 2006, Novozymes acquired Delta Biotechnology Ltd. (Nottingham, UK) from Sanofi-Aventis (Paris, France www. en.sanofi-aventis.com). Delta is involved in the research, development, production, and sale of microbially produced recombinant proteins.