Evonik Industries AG establishes production of recombinant collagen

Up to recently, virtually all collagen for medical or pharmaceutical applications was animal-derived because efforts to produce functional collagen-like molecules in bacteria, yeast, or insect cells in industrial scale were less successful. Yesterday, the German specialist for fine chemistry and performance materials, Evonik Industries AG (Essen), announced  that it was the first company that has set up an industrial biotech process for the manufacture of recombinantly produced human collagen – a US$3.5bn market growing at a CGAR of 5.3%.

The fermentation-based recombinant technology is set to provide pharmaceutical, medical, cell culture and tissue engineering markets with a highly soluble, ultra-pure form of collagen, which is safe, sustainable and commercially scalable. According to Evonik Industry, its collagen platform features biological properties that mimic many of the attributes of natural collagen so it can reliably interact with cells and tissues and be readily absorbed or remodelled by the body. In constrast, animal-sourced collagen suffers from batch-to-batch variability, potential contaminations, adverse immunogenic or allergic reactions, and sourcing methods that are not regarded as sustainable.

“This is arguably our biggest innovation breakthrough in recent years: a fermentation-based collagen platform that can effectively substitute the use of animal-derived collagen in pharmaceutical, medical, and cell culture markets.” said Dr. Thomas Riermeier, SVP and General Manager for the healthcare business line of Evonik.  He added that the new generation of collagen products would have “an improved safety profile.” 

The new collagen platform strongly complements other recent fermentation-driven biotech processes that have been established by Evonik Industries, including biosurfactants for household and cosmetic applications (rhamnolipids) and omega-3 fatty acids from marine algae for animal nutrition (Veramaris). 

The new collagen platform will also support Evonik’s Tissue Engineering Project House, which was launched in Singapore in 2018 by the Company’s strategic innovation unit Creavis, to develop advanced biomaterial solutions in regenerative medicine.