Multinational BASF Pharma plans to use a £2.95m grant from Scottish Enterprise to help increase manufacturing capacity at its facility on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland, potentially delivering 98 new jobs and safeguarding 25 existing jobs in the process. The Lewis site was obtained by BASF following the acquisition of Equateq, a manufacturer of highly concentrated omega-3 fatty acids in May.
Equateq’s proprietary chromatographic separation methods allow flexible formulation of omega-3 fatty acids at exceptional purity levels. In pharmaceutical products, highly concentrated omega-3 fatty acids are used to treat cardiovascular diseases such as myocardial infarction.
Equateq’s technologies enable fatty acid concentrates to be customised with variable ratios of EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) and DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) at concentration levels of up to 99% purity. ‘This is unique in the market,’ said Martin Widmann, senior vice president, Pharma Ingredients & Services at BASF.
At the end of 2011, BASF Plant Science announced an agreement with Cargill, an international producer and marketer of food, to co-develop a new dietary source of EPA/DHA omega-3 fatty acid available by the end of the decade. A next-generation canola oil containing EPA/DHA will enable pharmaceutical, food and nutritional supplement manufacturers to deliver the potential health benefits of omega-3 fatty acids into an even wider variety of new, cost-effective consumer products.
Scottish Enterprise has awarded more than £10m in Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) grants during the last quarter, a planned investment that is expected to create or safeguard more than 1,100 jobs.
