DGAP-News: B.R.A.I.N. Biotechnology Research And Information Network AG /
Key word(s): Alliance

2016-08-29 / 08:30
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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BRAIN, AnalytiCon and Roquette sign a strategic partnership for the
development of next generation natural sweetening solutions

  - The three partners form the DOLCE consortium to address sugar and
    sweetening solutions challenge in different markets and applications.

  - Many of the largest Fortune 500 global consumer product goods companies
    are known to have significant interest in this field

Zwingenberg, Potsdam (Germany) and Lestrem (France), August 29, 2016: The
bioeconomy company BRAIN AG (ISIN DE0005203947 / WKN 520394), the natural
product specialist AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH and Roquette, a global leader
in specialty food ingredients from plant-based raw materials, announced
today a strategic partnership under the form of a consortium by the name
DOLCE. Within this unique strategic partnership, the partners will jointly
develop natural sweeteners and sweet taste enhancers with the goal to
achieve sugar- and calorie reduction in a variety of food and beverages.
These developments will benefit the global market and will address pressing
needs in terms of sugar replacement.

Always striving for innovation, within the DOLCE consortium, Roquette
intends to benefit from the proprietary BRAIN screening technology and
AnalytiCon's access to a huge variety of all-natural ingredients with a
particular focus on edible plant material. Roquette's role will be to take
care of the late stage development, production and supply of the compounds
to different markets and application fields.

The goal of the DOLCE consortium is to develop cutting-edge natural sweet
taste enhancers and sweeteners for nutrition and improved food formulations
for their customers, and to deploy a brand strategy on the new solutions,
addressing the requirements of global customers. Many of the largest
Fortune 500 global consumer product goods companies (CPGC) are known to
have strong interest in this field, and the market for consumer goods and
beverages is expected to greatly benefit from the development of these new
sweetening solutions.

"In the field of food and beverages, there is a high demand for natural
sweet solutions, which help to make food formulations lower in calories,"
says Thierry Marcel, Executive Vice President R&D at Roquette. "We are
convinced that this DOLCE consortium will be a reference in the development
of new sweetening solutions and will address a formidable and presently
unmet market need for all natural sweetening alternatives."

"The DOLCE program has the aim to provide next generation natural sweet
solutions and will trigger attractive value for the stakeholders. These
sweet solutions will open up new opportunities for different consumer goods
markets and products. We are happy that Roquette, one of the leading global
food ingredient suppliers, joined forces with BRAIN and our subsidiary
AnalytiCon as important partner to enable the manufacturing of natural
sweetening solutions", states Dr Jürgen Eck, CEO of BRAIN.

"Together with Roquette we will embark on a joint program and manage the
consortium to develop sweetening solutions in different markets and
applications fields, deploying a brand strategy on the new solutions and
addressing the requirements of global consumers of food and beverages for
alternative sweetening solutions," says Dr Martin Langer, Executive Vice
President Corporate Development at BRAIN.

"The combination of the BRAIN screening technology, the experience in
accessing the toolbox of nature for identification and the development of
new solutions together with the availability of the natural ingredient
library at AnalytiCon is unique and will give us access to the next
generation of all-natural sweeteners and sweet taste enhancers," explains
Dr Lutz Müller-Kuhrt, CEO of AnalytiCon.

This DOLCE alliance will enable to further bridge the gap between the
discovery and development (BRAIN and AnalytiCon), formulation and
production (Roquette) and marketing and sales (CPGCs) of novel sweet
innovations into different food and beverages segments, creating new
opportunities for consumer product goods companies in different fields.

According to a report recently published on www.marketsandmarkets.com, the
sugar substitutes market in 2015 is valued at US$ 13.26bn and it is
expected to reach US$ 16.53bn by 2020 (CAGR of 4.5%). In terms of volume,
the market is projected to reach 17.03 million tons by 2020. There is a
growing demand for new solutions for natural sweetening to mimic the taste
of sugar in a healthier way. The global market for high potency sweeteners
in 2013 was calculated to be US$ 1.2bn according to a recent study of
Credit Suisse. According to a study of Lux Research, sugar substitutes
today account for 22% of the total sweeteners market, yet natural sweetener
alternatives represent only 1%. Along with trends towards natural and
healthy ingredients, these natural alternatives have the potential to
replace between 2% and 25% of total sucrose across product categories like
bakery and cereal, beverage, and confection.  

Contact:

B.R.A.I.N
Biotechnology Research And Information Network AG
Dr. Martin Langer
Unit Head Corporate Development
Darmstädter Str. 34-36
64673 Zwingenberg, Germany

Tel.: +49-6251-9331-16
Fax: +49-6251-9331-11
E-Mail: ml@brain-biotech.de
www.brain-biotech.de


Roquette
Carole Petitjean 
External Communication Manager
25 allée Vauban - CS80213
59564 La Madeleine Cedex
France

Tel: +33 3 21 63 92 48
E-mail: carole.petitjean@roquette.com 
www.roquette.com
 

About BRAIN

BRAIN is one of Europe's leading technology companies in the field of
industrial biotechnology, the core discipline of Bioeconomy. As such, BRAIN
identifies previously untapped, efficient enzymes, microbial producer
organisms or natural substances from complex biological systems that can be
put to industrial use. The innovative solutions and products developed by
help of this "Toolbox of Nature" are successfully applied in the chemistry,
the cosmetics and the food industries. Today, BRAIN's business model is
based on two pillars - "BioScience" and "BioIndustrial". The first pillar,
"BioScience", comprises its - frequently exclusive - collaboration business
with industrial partners such as e.g. BASF, Ciba, Clariant, Evonik, DSM,
Genencor, Henkel, Nutrinova, RWE, Sandoz, Schering, Südzucker and Symrise,
to name but a few. The second pillar "BioIndustrial" comprises the
development and commercialisation of BRAIN's own products and active
product components. The Group reached a total operating performance of
approximately 25.7 million Euros in the financial year 2014/2015 and
employed around 220 people.
www.brain-biotech.de


About AnalytiCon Discovery

AnalytiCon Discovery GmbH operates internationally and is the global market
leader in the field of natural product (NP) compound libraries featuring
fully elucidated structures. With its 60 employees at Potsdam Biotech
Campus, it offers services for every phase of the supply chain for NP-based
drug discovery and development. The company offers the full range of
services for the accelerated development of NP-based lead structures, from
procurement of raw biomaterials to fermentation, isolation and high-
throughput structure elucidation all the way to NP-focused medicinal
chemistry. The innovative technology concept employed by AnalytiCon has led
to top-class contracts with companies from the pharmaceutical, food and
cosmetics industries in Europe, USA and Japan. In the process, the company
has gained access to currently over 15% of all known natural products
worldwide as well as to thousands of yet unpublished
structures.Furthermore, AnalytiCon has established the BIOS concept
(Biology Oriented Synthesis), a technology for developing and producing
focused combinatorial compound libraries based on rare NP core structures
that contain bioactive structural elements (Nat-DiverseTM).
www.ac-discovery.com


About Roquette 

ROQUETTE "Improving well-being by offering the best of nature"
A family-owned Group serving customers globally, Roquette is a leader in
specialty food ingredients and pharmaceutical excipients. The products and
solutions developed by the Group deliver proven technological, nutritional
and health benefits precisely tailored to the pharma, nutrition, food and
selected industry markets. Roquette's offer is produced from plant-based
raw materials such as corn, wheat, potatoes and peas. Since its foundation
over 80 years ago, the Group's growth has been based on innovation, a
passion for the job and a commitment to achieve.
Roquette operates in over 100 countries, has a turnover of around 3.3
billion euros and currently employs more than 8,000 people worldwide.
www.roquette.com

The text from this press release can be found at www.brain-biotech.de


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2016-08-29 Dissemination of a Corporate News, transmitted by DGAP - a
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The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

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   Language:    English                                                    
   Company:     B.R.A.I.N. Biotechnology Research And Information Network  
                AG                                                         
                Darmstädter Straße 34-36                                   
                64673 Zwingenberg                                          
                Germany                                                    
   Phone:       +49 (0) 62 51 / 9331-0                                     
   Fax:         +49 (0) 62 51 / 9331-11                                    
   E-mail:      ir@brain-biotech.de                                        
   Internet:    www.brain-biotech.de                                       
   ISIN:        DE0005203947                                               
   WKN:         520394                                                     
   Listed:      Regulated Market in Frankfurt (Prime Standard); Regulated  
                Unofficial Market in Berlin, Dusseldorf, Munich,           
                Stuttgart, Tradegate Exchange                              
 
   
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