Evolva and IFF to end flavouring ingredient collaboration
The two companies also have a partnership on fermentation-derived vanillin, which is not affected by the announcement. The vanillin ingredient is expected to be available for commercial launch in 2014, and Evolva hopes to have its fermentation-derived stevia and saffron on the market in 2015 and 2016 respectively.
Speaking to FoodNavigator, Evolva CFO Jakob Dynnes Hansen said that the discontinued ingredient partnership concerned a flavour, but it was part of the agreement with IFF that the company would not give details of its function.
“I think they have just made a project evaluation and they don’t see right now a benefit of further investment, which I guess is based on several factors, from commercial potential to how much it would take to get it to market and so on,” he said, adding that the two companies were still discussing other areas for potential collaboration.
Evolva said that continuing the project on its own would not affect its financial guidance for 2013.
“Of course, it would mean that we will have to invest our own resources,” said Dynnes Hansen, adding that at the moment, IFF is responsible for most of the project’s cash flow. “In that way it is a risk.”
However, he said it was one of the company’s smaller programmes from a revenue perspective.
“Of course any project can be scaled up or down. At a minimum, we would need at least two or three scientists for it to be a successful project,” he said.
“…In a way, we don’t need a partner for the research. We have the technology and we have the skills to bring it forward. A partnership would be more important when we get closer to commercialisation.”
