Advances in synthetic biology and a shift towards sustainable manufacturing methods are helping to drive demand for the selection of CMOs with best-in-class microbial fermentation capabilities. For more than three decades, Evonik has served as a reliable fermentation partner to pharmaceutical companies, as well as other innovators who are seeking to industrialize disruptive biofabrication technologies within promising markets such as advanced foods or nature-identical materials. We have leveraged our expertise across fermentation and biocatalysis technologies including strain development, process optimization and large-scale manufacturing to help bring more than 25 products to market. With a total fermentation capacity of more than 4,000 m³ thanks to our trusted network of sites within the U.S., Europe, and Asia, we are ready to support your upcoming projects regardless of scale or complexity.

Evonik has a strong record of supporting pharmaceutical and food companies across a broad range of product classes where microbial fermentation technologies are required for biotransformation.
Areas of industry excellence for small molecules include:

• Amino acids and non-natural derivatives
• Secondary metabolites
• Natural substances
• Fatty acids

For complex molecules, we specialize in:

• Oligosaccharides
• Biosurfactants
• Enzymes
• Peptides and proteins
• Nucleotides

Other areas of expertise include whole organisms such as probiotics and whole cell catalysts.

Evonik supports customer projects that utilize a wide range of organisms used in strain development and fermentation, including broad range of bacteria including Streptomyces, yeast and other fungi, as well as algae. More than 40 years of biotechnology experience across enzymatic chemistry and biocatalysis can be applied to the commercial production of more than 20 different enzyme platforms. This broad toolbox of enzymes, many of which can be applied as whole cell catalysts, provides the flexibility to optimize the process development and scale-up. Rational strain development can utilize a selection of OMIC technologies including genomics, transcriptomics and metabolomics to help identify and eliminate bottlenecks or side reactions.

With its network of six fermentation sites across Europe, the U.S., and Asia, Evonik can provide the full portfolio of microbial fermentation and enzymatic chemistry to identify the optimal solution to any project requirements. Process development and pilot scale are available in various volumes from microtiter plates to up to 5,000 liter bioreactors. Commercial production can utilize bioreactors with capacities up to 250 m³. A new, flexible pilot plant for upstream and downstream processing in Slovakia includes continuous sterilization and multiple sterile feeding lines, as well as separator, nanofiltration and ultrafiltration units.

Over the last decade, Evonik has leveraged its pharmaceutical capabilities in microbial fermentation to support the industrial-scale and commercial production of innovative products in other rapidly expanding market sectors such as advanced food ingredients and nature-identical materials including biofabricated leather. These products can require advanced strain development and commercial manufacturing techniques such as the production of proteins through fermentation. We are proud to serve as an enabling partner to these innovative companies to support their pathway into high quality and sustainable supply.

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