Cultivated marine protein company Avant announces 90% cost reduction, new strategic partnership to accelerate scale up

Company reaches major milestones in commercializing cell-cultivated animal protein

HONG KONG - Avant, the first cultivated meat company in China and the first cultivated fish company in Asia, announces today a strategic partnership with QuaCell, an emerging leader in the biopharmaceutical industry in China.

This partnership will combine Avant’s cell cultivation biotechnology platform with QuaCell’s 7,000 m2 ISO and GMP accredited facilities in China, equipped with bioreactors up to 2,000 liters, supplying to FDA-compliant customers globally.

Subsequent to a 90% cost reduction and reaching unit economics in functional proteins with Avant’s FBS-free cell culture media, this partnership targets an additional 75% cost reduction from the current level.  It is expected to be accomplished by converting ingredients to food grade from pharma grade and by optimizing formula for large-scale bioreactors.

By utilizing Quacell’s industrial facilities, Avant will be able to reduce capital expenditure and accelerate its scale-up by at least 12 months. Avant will own the intellectual property generated from this partnership.

Dr. Mario Chin, Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer, Avant said, “Optimizing serum-free media formula to a food grade environment contributes vastly to scaling up, which is an important step to industrializing our patent-pending cell cultivation technologies.”

Carrie Chan, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Avant noted, “The race for cost reduction amongst cultivated meats companies has entered a new phase. With this partnership, we can leapfrog into a larger scale sooner and can make a better CapEx plan ahead.”

Fai Poon, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, QuaCell remarked**, "**We are excited about this partnership to work with Avant to accelerate commercialization of cell-cultivated animal protein leveraging on our infrastructure."

About QuaCell Biotechnology

QuaCell Biotechnology Company Limited ("QuaCell") is an international contract research organization (CRO) and contract manufacturing organization (CMO) specializing in biologics development and production. The company’s cell culture platform technology provides key advantages in antibody/recombinant protein engineering, cell line development, cell culture media and process development, and recombinant protein production. 

**About Avant **

Avant Meats Company Limited ("Avant") is the first cultivated meat company in China and the first cultivated fish company in Asia. Its patent-pending proprietary biotechnology platform produces fish proteins in a cost-effective and fully traceable bioprocess, directly from fish cells for food, skincare, and other functional applications. Avant aims to be a global leader in producing safely and sustainably cultivated proteins in a fully contained environment. Founded in 2018 and currently based in Hong Kong Science Park, Avant has been named on CleanTech Group’s 2020 APAC 25 list of most innovative sustainable companies and featured in Reuters, Forbes, The Telegraph, South China Morning Post, and CCTV. For more information, please visit www.avantmeats.com. 

For interview requests or media inquiries, please contact press@avantmeats.com.