The cooperation will enable both companies to accelerate the development of new bio-based ingredients for personal care applications.
WACKER and Amyris, a U.S. based biomanufacturing company, are joining forces. The two companies will be stepping up their collaboration in the development of bio-based functional ingredients for the personal care industry. The goal is to systematically evaluate the potential of such ingredients and building blocks for innovative personal care applications and new development approaches.
WACKER and Amyris have already been collaborating in the field of biotech¬nology for several years. Amyris is a leader in biomanufacturing with more than 20 years of expertise in the development and manufacturing of biological chemistry. As a leading manufacturer of silicone specialties and biotech products, WACKER has decades of experience in the formulation of silicone-based ingredients and in the fermentation of cyclodextrin and cysteine products for the personal-care and life-science industries.
The collaboration of both companies reflects current trends in the personal care and consumer goods sectors. According to current studies, the market for bio-based cosmetics will grow faster going forward than for conventional, purely chemically produced counterparts.
WACKER has already responded to this trend by introducing a new product line. Under the brand name BELNEXT®, the company will, for the first time, be presenting products based exclusively on renewable raw materials at in-cosmetics in Paris. “This allows us to offer manufacturers and formulators of personal-care products a wide range of ingredients, from proven silicone-based solutions to plant-derived products that offer similar properties but are completely bio-based,” says Ian Moore, head of WACKER’s Consumer & Healthcare unit.
The company is also collaborating with Amyris, a pioneer in the production of renewable biological chemistry. The California-based company uses precision-engineered microorganisms to transform abundantly available renewable feedstocks into high-performing molecules, enabling access to chemistries that would otherwise be too rare to source from nature. Amyris’s ingredients, produced using advanced precision fermentation, have been widely adopted across diverse end-markets including flavors and fragrances, beauty and personal care and specialty chemicals for industrial applications.
WACKER is also examining the extent to which selected bio-based raw materials produced using Amyris’s technology can be integrated into existing production structures in the future. “The development of market-ready solutions and the formulation and application compatibility of such solutions at the customer’s site are largely shaped by WACKER’s expertise in development, formulation, and production,” Moore emphasizes.
The cooperation will enable both companies to significantly accelerate the development of new bio-based ingredients for personal care applications.
