Bloomage Biotech Bioactive Nutrition  20:02 August 5, 2022, Published in Shandong

Bloomage Biotech (688363.SH), a world-renowned biotechnology and biomaterials company, was named one of the world's 50 Smartest Companies (TR50) in the MIT Technology Review's annual list 2021.

Bloomage Biotech was included in the list this year for its “4000kDa”. Bloomage Biotech has achieved significant progress in the molecular weight range of hyaluronic acid products from 2kDa to 4000kDa, with the world’s first enzymatic cleavage technology for low-molecular and oligomeric hyaluronic acid, as well as the precise control of fermentation and purification of multiple molecular weight segments.

Bloomage Biotech is the world’s leading company in the R & D, production and sales of hyaluronic acid. According to the latest report of Frost & Sullivan, in the year 2021, Bloomage Biotech occupied 44% of the global market share in hyaluronic acid raw materials, leading the world in hyaluronic acid industrialization.

As a global leading hyaluronic acid enterprise, Bloomage Biotech has been leading the industry development and launched two revolutions in the hyaluronic acid industry. The first is its initial mass production of hyaluronic acid in China using the microbial fermentation method, with reduced cost and increased efficiency. Since then, hyaluronic acid has been “popular with the general public” instead of being “more expensive than gold”. The second is the mass production of low-molecular-weight hyaluronic acid and oligomeric hyaluronic acid by microbial enzymatic cleavage for the first time worldwide. And this contributes to its name on the list of “50 Smartest Companies” 2021.

Enzymatic cleavage technology enables precise control of the molecular weight of hyaluronic acid, greatly expands the application scope of hyaluronic acid and brings it into the “micro-nano era”. It is one of the three industrial revolutions for hyaluronic acid, together with the “extraction of hyaluronic acid from animals” and “large-scale production of hyaluronic acid by microbial fermentation”, and was awarded the “21st China Patent Gold Award” in 2019.

Based on its enzymatic cleavage technology, Bloomage Biotech has currently obtained more than 200 sizes of hyaluronic acid raw materials and can produce the largest (more than 4000KDa) and smallest (800Da) molecular weight hyaluronic acid in the world. Hyaluronic acid with the smallest molecular weight can be used as a carrier for cancer drug-targeting therapy.

Following the above two industrial revolutions, Bloomage Biotech is now actively laying out the “third biotechnology revolution”, i.e., synthetic biology.

“Synthetic biology” has attracted much attention in recent years due to its cross-fertilization, subversiveness, and broad application prospects. As reported by Reportlinker, synthetic biology gained $10.07 billion in the global market in 2021 and is expected to grow at an annual rate of 30.2% to $13.11 billion in 2022. And “Synthetic biology” is mentioned several times in the newly issued China’s 14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomic Development.

“Synthetic biology will subvert the traditional production methods, achieve changes in key areas, and become a breakthrough in the downgrade.” Dr. Wang Ruiyan, director of R & D and Management of Bioactives, and director of R & D and Management of Synthetic Biology in Bloomage Biotech, noted that “In the future, 30% - 50% of petrochemical products will be replaced by bio-based products.” Using synthetic biology technology, for example, the source of raw materials for cosmetics will be effectively adjusted, or have the opportunity to achieve curve overtaking, to avoid foreign containment at the raw material.

It is reported that driven by synthetic biology, Bloomage Biotech currently focuses on six categories of substances: functional sugars, proteins, polypeptides, amino acids, nucleotides, and other natural active compounds. Among them, in terms of collagen, Bloomage Biotech has made a breakthrough in recombinant human collagen production technology through synthetic biology and acquired Yierkang Bio. to enter the collagen industry.

Currently, Bloomage Biotech has already established an initial scale in synthetic biology, with a domestic advanced level. Bloomage’s "Key Laboratory of Synthetic Biology of Bioactive Substances in Shandong Province" has been recognized by the Department of Science & Technology of Shandong Province and its "International Innovation Industrial Base of Synthetic Biology" has been launched in Daxing District, Beijing, and put into use. A synthetic biology R & D team has been preliminarily established, and the technical platform has been built. In addition, Bloomage Biotech has achieved industrial transformation for collagen, 5-ALA, NMN, human milk oligosaccharide, chondroitin sulfate, heparin, etc. by synthetic biotechnology, and has started strategic cooperation with several domestic and foreign research institutions on synthetic biology to accelerate the transformation of industrial achievements in the field of synthetic biology.