Jan Buch Andersen heading up newly established Biotec Marine Biochemicals AS

Published 17.06.2009 (Press release)

Marine Biochemicals ASA has moved all its enzyme activities into Biotec Marine Biochemicals AS and hired Jan Buch Andersen as Managing Director of the newly established subsidiary. The target is to strengthen the development of the marine enzymes business, which in 2009 is expected to generate revenue of approximately NOK 15 million with an EBITDA margin of 40%. New products and new applications for the company’s enzymes are expected to form the basis for strong growth in the coming year.

Jan Buch Andersen (52) is a M.Sc in Agronomy and a Ph.D in Molecular Biology, and has 10 years of research experience and 15 years in management and marketing positions with well recognized companies like Invitrogen and Roche Diagnostics. Buch Andersen has also been a founder/co-founder of several Life Science companies and has held/is holding Board positions in several spin-offs from Danish universities.

– We are very glad to welcome Jan as a leader of our marine enzyme business, which we have now established as a separate company. We believe marine enzymes have a large commercial potential, and Jan’s experience and international network in the life science community will enable us to exploit this potential in an entirely different manner, says CEO Lars Viksmoen in Biotec Pharmacon.

Marine Biochemicals is in the midst of a broadening of its portfolio of cold-adapted enzymes, where the top-selling product historically has been SAP (shrimp alkaline phosphatase). A little over a year ago the company introduced Cod-UNG (uracil-DNA N-glycosylase), which is an ideal enzyme for DNA/RNA analysis that already has been adopted by large well-renowned international diagnostics companies. In 2008, enzyme sales generated revenue of NOK 12 million, which is expected to increase by 30 percent to approximately NOK 15 million this year.