The story
In 1925, the brothers Harald and Thorvald Pedersen founded Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium and Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium with the aim to produce insulin. In 1941 the company's predecessor launched its first enzyme, trypsin, extracted from the pancreas of animals and used to soften leather, and was the first to produce enzymes by fermentation using bacteria in the 1950s. In the late 1980s Novozymes presented the world's first fat-splitting enzyme for detergents manufactured with genetically engineered microorganisms, called Lipolase.
The current Novozymes was founded in 2000 as a spinout from pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk.
In the 2000s Novozymes expanded through the acquisition of several companies focusing on business outside the core enzyme business. Amongst them were the Brazilian bio agricultural company Turfal and German pharmaceutical, chemical and life science company EMD/Merck Crop BioScience Inc. These acquisitions made Novozymes a leader in sustainable solutions for the agricultural biological industry.
In January 2016, the company spun out its biopharmaceutical operations into Albumedix.
In June 2020, the business announced it would acquire Ireland-based PrecisionBiotics for $90 million. In December of the same year Novozymes announced it would acquire Microbiome Labs in a $125 million deal.
On 12 December 2023, it was announced that Novozymes and Danish bioscience company Chr. Hansen had obtained regulatory approval for a merger, and on the following day, the name of the combined company was revealed as Novonesis.
The merger between Novozymes and Chr. Hansen was finalized on 29 January 2024 after receiving all final approvals from the Danish Business Authority.
From Wikipedia’s article on Novozymes, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5