BIONEXX

Madagascar: producing the active ingredient for the world's only WHO approved malaria drug

Short description

Malaria kills more than 400,000 people every year. 90% of these people live in Africa and by far the most of them are children under the age of five. According to UNICEF malaria accounts for about one in six of all childhood deaths in Africa.

In 1971, after reviewing 2000 candidate recipes, ancient texts, and folk remedies, the Chinese pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou discovered the Malaria curing power of a plant called Artemisia annua. It took till 2004 for her invention to be translated into the market entry of an approved medicine. For her discovery, Tu received the Nobel Prize in 2015. Today, the so-called Artemisinin Combined Therapies (ACTs) are the only malaria curing medicines that are approved by the WHO.

Other medicines exist, but have lost their effectiveness as the virus has developed a resistance against them. The only African country which produces Artemisia annua at scale is Madagascar. This is directly linked to the activities of Bionexx. Artemisia annua is typically grown by smallholder farmers. Due to its specific growing and harvesting conditions, it can be cultivated in the low season as a counter-crop of rice.

For the farmers, this cash crop is an interesting enhancement of their income per hectare. In Madagascar, around 10.000 farmers are supplying to Bionexx and derive about 25% from their annual cash revenue from this.

Bionexx Madagascar

Back in 2005, two French entrepreneurs had the view to develop a supply chain to cure malaria on the very continent that is most plagued by this disease: Africa. It took them 10 years of R&D, heavy CAPEX investments, hard work and a lot of perseverance to the point where Bionexx:

• is a semi-pharmaceutical company active in the identification, development and production of functional ingredients derived from plants, for use in the pharmaceutical, food and personal care industries.
• $ 6.8 million turnover in 2016, of which 80% comes from Artemisinin.
• has successfully passed the most stringent quality audits of various pharma companies;
• is now one of the leading Artemisinin suppliers globally, and the only based in Africa;
• has installed capacity to strongly increase Artemisinin volume in the coming years.

Strategy

The strategy of Bionexx is centered around the following pillars:
1. increasing production and sales volume of Artemisinin,
2. increasing the biomass supply through growing the supplier base of farmers growing Artemisia annua and to enhance their production per hectare in a sustainable manner.
3. diversification into other products based on botanical extracts.

Partnerships

We have several existing partnerships focused on research (e. g. with universities and industrial partners), projects (e. g. local companies and organizations) and the development of activities (local and international companies).

We are open to discuss new opportunities to work together.

Short contribution by Martin Gertz

Bionexx was founded 12 years ago with the idea of cultivating the plant Artemisia annua. This was followed in 2007 by the acquisition of an existing factory for plant extraction in Fianarantsoa, the testing of cultivation technology and cooperation with the farmers as well as the expansion of capacities and abilities for the extraction. In the second phase, the focus is now mainly on the increase in production. We have already made good progress which is reflected in the biomass production (1,500 tons), the number of farmers (about 10,000) and the number of employees (450). There are also a few other projects which have been launched in parallel and partly with partners (e.g. joint ventures for the extraction of quinine from tree bark) and which are supposed to shape the 3rd phase in the development of Bionexx.

As Corporate Finance Manager it is my task to find more partners. Our focus is on "impact" oriented partners who support the approach and the strategic perspective of Bionexx. We are open to cooperation with institutional (funds, foundations) as well as strategic or private investors.

In the future, we will also seek further project or activity related partnerships with local or international companies and institutions.

Please contact me if you are interested or know someone who is interested in a partnership.

Martin Gertz
Corporate Finance Manager
Bionexx S.A.

Website: www.bionexx.com
Tel: +261 (0)32 03 023 21
Email: mgertz@bionexx.com