BASF on Friday invited the Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond, to officially open its newly acquired and now expanded high concentration omega-3 facility on the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides, west Scotland.
€22m has been committed to this and further growth at the BASF Pharma (Callanish) site – formerly known as Equateq before BASF’s May 2012 take over – that can now churn out 250 tonnes of omega-3 oils at up to 99% purity. Previous output was just 20 tonnes.
The prescription pharma space is the primary target market but at the event, Walter Dissinger, president of BASF’s Nutrition and Health division, told us the German chemicals giant was also avidly exploring a “white space” that existed in high-dose supplements and OTC medicines.
“One of the major ingredients we want to grow in is omega-3, especially when we talk about highly concentrated omega-3 and trying to create new white spaces next to pharma which would be human nutrition,” Dissingersaid.
“So the technology we have acquired here is the pre-requisite to get into these markets. We see omega-3 as one of the most important ingredients with high growth rates going forward especially with highly concentrated omega-3 and that’s where the technology we have acquired here kicks in.”
Dissinger said the facility was now the, “benchmark in separation technologies within BASF.”
Hear Dissinger talk more of BASF’s omega-3 pharma-nutra strategy in an exclusive podcast on InPharmaTechnologist and NutraIngredients in coming days.
