Algae firm closer to omega-3 production

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Biotechnology company Photonz has taken a huge step in developing its omega-3 fatty acid product after successfully transferring its fermentation process to a Canadian facility, says chief executive Greg Moss-Smith.

The Auckland-based company founded in 2002 has developed a fermentation process to make omega-3 fatty acid, or EPA, from marine microalgae as an ingredient for the pharmaceutical industry.

EPA is most commonly sourced from fish oil.

The Canadian facility can operate multi-tonne scale fermentations under industrial conditions, with successive harvests producing more than 20 tonnes of fermentation product.

The harvested biomass would be shipped to France for a purification process.

"That is a huge technical step to be able to put the process into other people's hands and they can make it work," Moss-Smith said. "You're almost in the ball park of normal commercial risk at this point. As a result of the success of this project I have confirmed to our investors that we remain on track to manufacture, in 2012, an industrial scale end-product that addresses a massive opportunity in the US$60 billion cardiovascular disease market [in the US]."

The most common class of product in the cardiovascular market are called statins, which are used for treating high blood cholesterol and worked very well with EPA, he said.

"That's what's been shown in recent clinical trials which are now the basis for drug approvals by other companies and our aim is to supply those companies with their active ingredient."