Beyond enzymes with BioBusiness  

The name Novozymes is synonymous with industrial enzymes for many customers and business associates. As the world’s largest producer of enzymes, this is not so surprising. But this picture is changing as the Novozymes name is also becoming known for bioinnovation outside the enzyme field. Novozymes has a goal of applying its leading-edge protein know-how and technologies in areas other than enzymes. Through a series of acquisitions plus internal new business projects and start-ups, Novozymes has built up a new business area that now represents around 7% of annual revenues and employs 650 people. From September 2007, and together with Novozymes’ Business Development & Acquisitions department, these activities have been combined into one division called BioBusiness. The majority part of the company will be known as Enzyme Business.

A new leg
“We aim to be an important second leg for Novozymes to stand on,” says Thomas Videbæk, Executive Vice President of BioBusiness. “We may never be as big as Enzyme Business but there are a lot of big possibilities for Novozymes outside enzymes that we want to explore.

“I see us as an integrated part of Novozymes. Our task is to ensure that we develop and spread out our unique technology to a larger area beyond enzymes,” explains Thomas Videbæk. “Our ‘core’ business lies in our Biopharma and Biologicals units, but a large part of our new business will come from our radical innovation, which means applying our technology to completely new areas.”

Uncommon connections
“BioBusiness’ biggest challenge is to leverage Novozymes’ core competencies. By that I mean the way we develop, produce, and use our products,” Thomas Videbæk continues. “The trick is to develop and translate these competencies into new, uncommon connections.

“Apart from developing and selling new products, we also offer the opportunity of applying our technologies for our partners, thus developing new business through collaboration,” he adds. “This is what we do in Bioprocessing Solutions, one of the units in BioBusiness. In this unit the business model is licensing and services to pharmaceutical partners, for example.”

With a strong emphasis on new business development, BioBusiness is a dynamic division. At present, BioBusiness is focusing on four main areas:

• Microorganisms for industrial and agricultural use
• Microbial expression and production technology for the pharmaceutical industry
• Cell culture ingredients and biomedical applications
• Conversion of renewable raw materials

What connects all these areas is what is on Novozymes’ technology platform beyond enzymes
(see box and case stories for more details).