Givaudan pioneers biotech with acquisition of Amyris’ “major cosmetic ingredients”

22 Feb 2023 --- Givaudan has agreed to purchase a portfolio of Amyris’ cosmetic ingredients, including Neossance Squalane, a high-performance emollient, Neossance Hemisqualane, a plant-based silicone alternative and CleanScreen, a sustainable sun protector. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of this year.

“Biotech is part of the future of Beauty. Our industry is asking for sustainable solutions while continuing to enjoy memorable beauty experiences,” Pauline Martin, head of global communications and S&T Marketing of Fragrance & Beauty at Givaudan, tells PersonalCareInsights.

The industry’s two major players are bound by a long-term partnership that will allow Amyris to continue manufacturing its ingredients for Givaudan to use in its cosmetic products while also providing access to Amyris’ “innovation capabilities.” 

“Amyris and Givaudan already have a significant partnership that leverages the value of Amyris’ technology platform and biomanufacturing capabilities. This expanded collaboration will allow us to further scale some of our most popular sustainable ingredients in beauty,” John Melo, president and CEO at Amyris, also tells us.

In turn, Givuadan will become Amyris’ commercialization partner for sustainable beauty ingredients. 

“The terms of the deal include a combination of upfront cash consideration, a performance-based earnout and a long-term manufacturing agreement. Further details have not been disclosed and Givaudan plans to fund the transaction from existing resources,” details Givaudan.

Biotech on the horizon
The acquisition informs Givaudan’s 2025 strategy to provide new, enhanced products to expand its Active Beauty business.

“This transaction fits perfectly with our 2025 strategic ambitions to develop our active beauty business,” says Maurizio Volpi, president of Givaudan Fragrance & Beauty. 

Givuadan will become Amyris’ commercialization partner for sustainable beauty ingredients (Image credit: Amyris).Volpi adds that the company plans to push the boundaries of biotechnology to create new environmentally sustainable innovations for beauty. 

“Acquiring this portfolio from Amyris and further extending our partnership for cosmetic ingredients fits with our strategy to grow our Active Beauty business while leveraging our biotechnology expertise and leadership in the market,” adds Martin.

“We wish to increase our biotechnology range to continue to offer the most sustainable and efficient solutions to consumers. Amyris has a long heritage in biotechnology research, development and manufacturing and their innovation capabilities fit definitely with ours. The complementary expertise of both businesses will further enhance our capabilities to accelerate the transition to sustainable beauty.”

Melo expresses that Amyris is reaching a major new step in its commercial partnership.

“While consumers seek progressively more for natural products, their price, quality, availability and sustainable supply are a challenge. Biotechnologies enable [us] to meet customers’ needs and expectations without endangering living species,” shares Martin.

“We operate in three areas of biotech: Blue biotech with microalgae culture, White biotech with fermentation and biocatalysis and Green biotech with plant cells culture. Givaudan masters biotechnologies to unleash the power of biological resources, to produce ingredients while limiting the impact on the environment.”

On the business side, Givaudan believes that Amyris’ active cosmetic ingredients would have represented almost US$30 million of incremental sales to Givaudan’s results in 2022 on a proforma basis.

Givuadan has shown “good growth” with full-year sales at CHF 7.12 billion (US$7.7 billion), an increase of 5.3% on a like-for-like (LFL) basis compared to 2021. “Fragrance & Beauty sales were up 5.5% LFL” shares the company. 

Lab-to-Market
Amyris’ strengths lie in accelerating sustainable consumption via its Lab-to-Market technology platform beauty, health and wellness and flavors and fragrances markets.Givaudan can leverage Amyris’s Lab-to-Market platform for designing, scaling and manufacturing bio-fermented ingredients (Image credit: Givaudan). 

“Through our Lab-to-Market operating system Amyris speeds time-to-market from target molecule identification to the production of efficacious ingredients to meet our partners’ requirements. This deal further cements our ability to deliver consumers high-quality, cost-effective, sustainable ingredients,” Melo tells PersonalCareInsights.

“Our technology and biomanufacturing capabilities deliver truly differentiated sustainable ingredients that consumers demand and enable our partners to lead in their markets. This transaction is a major step forward in funding our growth and enabling us to reach operating profitability,” says Melo.

Amyris’s Lab-to-Market technology platform showed a 90% reduction in the cost of product development and an 80% reduction in time-to-market when comparing 2020 and 2021. This has helped the company to improve its speed in identifying and commercializing new molecules.

Givaudan can now leverage Amyris’s technology platform for designing, scaling and manufacturing bio-fermented ingredients. “With our historical expertise and leadership in the field, we will continue to explore new boundaries to offer innovative bio-based solutions to the beauty industry,” says Martin.

Spotlighted ingredients
Markus Rassmann, head of active beauty at Givaudan, says that Neossance Squalane, Neossance Hemisqualane and CleanScreen represent the unique added value in answering customers’ expectations for innovative, sustainable and efficient beauty solutions.

An environmentally unsustainable molecule is squalane, traditionally derived from shark livers or olives. “Shark sourcing destabilizes already fragile oceanic ecosystems, while olive material underperforms due to its impurity profile and cannot scale to meet demand,” Annie Tsong, chief strategy officer of products and ingredients at Amyris, previously told PersonalCareInsights.

Neossance Squalane is sourced from sugarcane instead of the traditional botanical plant source. The production is dramatically more resource-efficient – requiring 8,220 times less land, continues Tsong. The crops are grown in Brazil and have attained a Bonsucro sustainability certification.

Recently, Amyris and the World Wildlife Fund partnered to support WWF’s initiatives to improve ocean health and lessen the negative impacts of fishing on shark populations.

Neossance Hemisqualane is marketed as a clean-beauty, plant-based silicone alternative that provides an equivalent sensory and functional performance to unhealthy, banned silicones.

Lastly, CleanScreen is a zinc-oxide, silica and squalane-based sun protectant, which is non-nano. It provides UV protection without petrochemical-derived ingredients or silicones.

Tracking Amyris and Givaudan
Amyris recently launched 4U by Tia, a natural hair care line co-developed with actress Tia Mowry. The company and actress-entrepreneur-activist Naomi Watts also launched Stripes, a brand for (peri)menopausal wellness.Amyris’ sugarcane feild (Image credit: Amyris).

The company also led a discussion on climate-positive consumption to address the global climate crisis at the COP27 summit in Egypt. The company aims to redefine the production process for chemical ingredients. Amyris also revealed crucial issues that matter to Gen Z and how these emerging voices are changing corporate and political agendas.

As part of growing the business, Amyris brands have been expanding to UK and EU beauty markets, furthering revenue growth. Moreover, last July, the company began industrial production at its newest precision fermentation plant in Barra Bonita, Brazil.

Givaudan has been observed to be strengthening its sustainable innovations. 

The company recently launched RetiLife, a 100% natural-origin retinol crafted through biotechnology and Gravityl, an anti-gravity face care ingredient formulated by marine biotechnology from a red macro alga. 

In addition, Siliphos – a botanical skincare ingredient, was launched as a natural cosmetic alternative that provides anti-aging advantages equal to retinoids. Givaudan also introduced Purple 2364, an environmentally sustainable and vegan alternative to synthetic pigments, which is extracted by green fractionation from purple radish.

Melanie Duprat, category manager and sustainability representative for Givaudan Active Beauty, previously told us that clean beauty exists today as the basic feature. “Now customers expect so much more from brands: waterless products, reuse of waste, carbon neutrality. So in 2023, those concepts will be more popular because they will meet customers’ expectations.”

In further efforts, 40 Egyptian jasmine producers were instructed on sustainable agriculture techniques by Givaudan. It also partnered with LanzaTech to develop environmentally sustainable fragrance ingredients from renewable carbon by leveraging synthetic biology.

By Venya Patel