Royal DSM N.V., the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, today announces the acquisition of Microbia, Inc. (Lexington, Massachusetts, United States) from Ironwood Pharmaceuticals, Inc. The terms of the acquisition will not be disclosed.

Microbia is a successful industrial biotechnology research and development specialist. It has developed a highly effective technology platform that enables it to produce high-quality, natural carotenoids (including β-carotene and canthaxanthin), nutritional products and other speciality materials and chemicals from renewable resources.

Microbia's sales are still limited. The acquisition will allow DSM to incorporate Microbia's proprietary platform and world class research and development capabilities and support DSM's ongoing development of the natural carotenoids market.

Leendert Staal, President and CEO of DSM Nutritional Products commented: "The acquisition of Microbia represents a significant step for DSM in our strategy to accelerate our innovation activities in natural products and fermentation processes. This acquisition allows us to expand our product portfolio as well as our research and development capabilities."

Kevin Madden, Chief Science Officer of Microbia added: "We are thrilled to join DSM. Being part of a large global organization, and a world leader in industrial biotechnology, vitamins and carotenoid development, manufacturing and sales will expedite our ability to leverage our proprietary bio-based technology platform. We look forward to help accelerate DSM’s ongoing efforts to develop, produce and commercialise the next generation of nutritional ingredients and other materials that will help the food, feed, chemicals and other industries produce more innovative and sustainable products, in a far more cost effective and responsible manner."

Microbia, Inc. (formerly Microbia Precision Engineering) is an industrial biotechnology company applying proprietary metabolic engineering utilizing fermentation technology to create natural, cost-effective, renewable speciality ingredients and biomaterials.