Amyris, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMRS) has entered into a collaboration and joint development agreement with Firmenich, the largest privately-owned fragrance and flavor company, based in Geneva, Switzerland.
This is the first agreement for Amyris in the fragrance and flavor industry and provides an opportunity to add higher-value ingredients to the company's product portfolio.
Under the agreement, Firmenich will fund technical development at Amyris to produce a sustainable, cost-effective source of a "key ingredient" for the fragrance and flavor market. Under the agreement, Amyris will manufacture and supply product to Firmenich, Firmenich will market and distribute the product, and the companies will share revenue.
The agreement also grants worldwide exclusive commercialization rights in fragrance and flavor to Firmenich for the ingredient, which will be manufactured by Amyris. In addition, Firmenich has an option to collaborate with Amyris to develop a second ingredient.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
"The fragrance and flavor market offers a significant additional opportunity for growth in our renewable chemicals business," said John Melo, CEO of Amyris.
Amyris's synthetic biology platform creates living factories to produce specific, targeted molecules. Amyris says its technology platform may be applied to produce an array of ingredients currently used in the fragrance and flavor industry.
To date, Amyris has focused its technical and commercial efforts on Biofene® (Amyris-produced farnesene) and its related derivatives, which include diesel fuel molecule.
Amyris debuted on the Nasdaq in September at $16 per share. Currently the company is trading just above $19.
