October/November Issue

There is continuing interest in carotenoids mainly as antioxidants in dietary supplements and as well as food and feed colours. The best-known carotenoid is beta-carotene which has established a large market both as food colour[orange] and as dietary supplement. Astaxanthin is used as pigment in salmon and trout feed but is beginning to find applications as pharmaceutical supplement. Lycopene is the latest carotenoid to enter the marketplace. Bright red coloured lycopene can be extracted from tomatoes but a synthetic route has ben developed by Roche and BASF. This carotenoid is reputed to be one of the most powerful antioxidants and [together with lutein another carotenoid] is already being incorporated in Unilevre's health margarine 'Latte'.

Further details concerning the applications, process routes, producers, prices and future outlook of all carotenoids is included in our latest survey: Carotenoids - Current Status and Outlook.

Steroids have a wide range of uses as therapeutic/medicinal products as contraceptives and for post-menopausal indications, as anti-hypertensives and anti-asthmatic compounds. Steroids are mainly derived from soya sterols which are converted by bio-transformation to intermediates [AD and ADD] which are then converted either chemically or microbiologically to derivatives. In recent years novel steroid derivatives have been launched which has resulted in increasing demand for fermentation capacity to supply all these products. These isues are discussed in our latest survey: The Steroid Industry in Europe & U.S. - Opportunities for Bulk and Generics .

Despite the closure of many antibiotic facilities in Europe, U.S. and Japan there seems to be an general tightness in fermentation capacity for other products, especially enzymes and various pharmaceutical products including steroids. In our latest survey|: 'The Fermentation and Biotechnology Industry - Current Capacity and Capacity Requirements by 2005 the capacity of fermentation companies involved in : antibiotics and other healthcare products, enzymes, organic acids, amino acids, polysaccharides and vitamins is given by company, by product and by country for 2001/2002. This is compared with the capacity of biotechnology companies involved in the production of proteins [insulin, interferons, EPO, tpa and similar products] by mammalian and bacterial cell fermentation.

This survey is unique as the only report available which lists the fermentation capacity of every company worldwide involved in fermentation and biotechnology. In addition the manufacturing costs of a wide range of fermentation products [insulin, interferon, citric acid, lysine etc] are estimated. Finally the projected capacity freuirements for 2005 are given.