Purified heparin from marine raw materials

Hepmarin AS has developed and patented processes to produce Heparin, using marine species as raw material. These are more efficient and cheaper than existing technology, solves contamination issues through the use of a traceable raw material source, and w ill not have the ethical/religious issues as common raw material sources. Results suggest that raw material of marine origin contains high concentrations of very high quality Low Molecular Weight (LMW) Heparin. It is shown that one can find 30-50% of thi s form of heparin from raw fish compared to <2-5% in conventional products (mammal-based raw material; pork (lungs) and cow (intestines)). The technology is proven in lab scale, using gills and intestines from salmon as raw material. Farmed fish appears to be an abundant and reliable source and has the potential to be used in a well documented process, however the amounts and composition of heparin in other marine species where raw material is available in an industrial scale remains unknown. Thus it is of crucial importance to the further industrialization of a production process for heparin based on raw material of marine origin to identify the optimal source for production. The optimal source will be a species where partly processed raw material in th e form of intestines or gills with a high concentration of low molecular weight heparin is available. Together with Professor Ragnar Flengsrud at UMB and Nofima Ingredients in Bergen, Hepmarin plans to take on a research program - the main objectives are described above. Well documented research results bring the company closer to entering the anticoagulant market. This market is expected to grow to m$ 4,920 in 2012. Heparin products are widely used anticoagulants and are a cornerstone of drug therapy i n this sector. Revenues for heparin market alone are forecasted to grow to m$1,889 in 2012.