Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Lipofabrik (A ground-breaking biomolecular production platform for safer, more efficient and sustainable pest control and crop health management)
Okres sprawozdawczy: 2020-04-01 do 2021-03-31
The demand for molecules of biological origin in this sector is therefore very high. A recent published report from MarketsandMarkets shows that the biopesticide market valued at $ 3 billion is expected to reach $ 6.4 billion in 2023. This growth will be driven by factors such as increased pest resistance, ban on numerous synthetic pesticides and progress in integrated pest management solutions.
LIPOFABRIK is an innovative start-up from the University of Lille, specialized in the production of biological molecules with application in the phytosanitary, food, cosmetic and medical cleaning markets. Our specialised team of researchers has developed and patented a production methodology for Mycosubtilin, a bioactive lipopeptide produced by Bacillus subtilis with demonstrated antifungal and stimulating effects in several crops. Since 2013, LIPOFABRIK holds exclusivity on this patent, focused now on its market exploitation and IP portfolio expansion. In other hand, LIPOFABRIK has also developed another different product from Bacillus subtilis which displays biostimulant activity. LIPOFABRIK aims to commercialize these two products from Bacillus subtilis: LipoMyco® as a biopesticide and PlantBoost® as a biostimulant. The first one contains mainly Mycosubtilin. The latter is a concentrated supernatant of the fermentation broth, rich in primary and secondary metabolites from Bacillus, this application was also patented by LIPOFABRIK.
This project aims to overcome the current market shortage on this kind of biomolecules, industrialising our proprietary formulation and process to be aligned with the voiced demand. We aim to increase our production 10 times and reduce cost sales 5 times. This will allow us to offer our products at a similar price than other biopesticides or biostimulant currently in the market. To reach this objective, the research carried out within the SME Instrument founding program are focused on the optimization of metabolic pathway to overproduce Mycosubtilin, on the optimization of production and purification process parameters and to scale-up the production process at an industrial scale. Upon completion, we will operate the first industrial lipopeptide production plant in Europe, providing a sustainable and cost-efficient solution for natural plant protection. Our proprietary biopesticide ingredients will be sold at a competitive price, being the only European company with capability to deliver bulk amounts, from 200-400 tons per year, of these biomolecules needed for large scale application in agriculture and gardening.
All these results were communicated at various international congresses in Europe (ABIM 2019, ANTIMIC 2019, Biostimulant 2019, …). LIPOFABRIK teams also presented the results of this SME Instrument program to multiple scientific and commercial partners. Finally, thanks to these collaborations with different Universities, LIPOFABRIK teams have participated in the publication of 2 scientific articles in peer review journals, as well as one book chapter. Others very interesting results will be published in the coming months.