With the creation of Novozymes Biopolymer A/S in 2003, Novozymes branched out into a completely new area - biopolymers," says Thomas C. Beck, senior director of Novozymes Biopolymer. "This is in line with the company strategy of extending the use of our core technologies to the production of biotech products other than enzymes."

The first biopolymer to be launched in 2004 was hyaluronic acid for cosmetic applications known by the brand name HyaCare.

Hyaluronic acid is a sugar macromolecule that is found naturally in all humans, animals and plants. It has a unique ability to bind water and can be used for skincare, the treatment of osteoarthritis and in eye operations. Novozymes is initially focusing on the cosmetics industry, in which hyaluronic acid is used in moisturising and anti-wrinkle creams. HyaCare works by locking in moisture to make the skin appear smoother and more radiant.

High purity
HyaCare is certainly not the only hyaluronic acid product on the market - there are currently some 15 other producers around the world. They either extract the product from cockscombs or produce it using Streptococcus bacteria.

Novozymes' hyaluronic acid, on the othe r hand, is produced using a micro-organism that has been approved for the production of foodstuffs for many years, namely Bacillus subtilis. Furthermore, no organic solvents are used in the recovery process, and no animal ingredients.

Given Novozymes' many years of process experience with Bacillus subtilis and other microorganisms, they are able to reproduce any amount of HyaCare to the same high level of purity.

Proven claims
Hyaluronic acid is regarded as a commodi-ty product by the market, but Novozymes claims that new HyaCare is different. "My people have worked hard to develop exactly what prospective customers need," says senior R&D manager Khadija Schwach-Abdellaoui.

"One of the ways we differ from our competitors is that our product is purer and more consistent due to the unique production process. Another difference is that we can substantiate everything we claim," says Søren Halbye, global business manager at Novo-zymes Biopolymer. He was recently in the USA and Canada presenting HyaCare to some of the largest cosmetics companies in the world. "They were very impressed by our scientific approach. We don't just give them a product specification but a whole series of results from clinical trials."

In one trial, hydration of the skin was measured by corneometry after applying cream containing HyaCare for eight weeks. Compared to a placebo cream containing no HyaCare, the hydration values were 7% higher with HyaCare. A large increase of 27% in skin elasticity was also measured. In addition, a statistically significant decrease in the maximum roughness value equal to 10% was observed. A reduction in this value reflects a decrease in deep wrinkles.

These clinical trials prove that creams containing HyaCare have anti-wrinkle and moisturising effects.

"Obviously we can't just sell the product to every cosmetics company in the world on our own, so we're working with a number of regional partners in the USA, Europe and China," says Søren Halbye, who is responsible for sales of HyaCare to the cosmetics industry. "So far, HyaCare is our only product, but we see a lot of potential for second-generation, tailor-made hyaluronic acid products developed in cooperation with customers."

Other applications
Novozymes has plans to develop hyaluronic acid products for use in fields other than cosmetics. In future, Novozymes will be looking at medical applications such as contact lens cleaning, wound healing, tissue engineering and topical pharmaceut-icals. Novozymes is also looking at other high-value biopolymers where the company's core technology can give a competitive advantage.