Our story

Alkion BioPharma was founded in 2011 to revolutionize the secondary metabolims production for cancer therapies.

Imperial Innovations, a team of Imperial College researchers & business professionals joined together to develop the technologies able to transform non-GMO plants into a natural biorefinery.

Quickly the technological platform received strong interests from the cosmetics community and the company signed research contracts to develop new disruptive cosmetics ingredients.

Four years after the company was founded, boasting a strong commercial pipeline, Alkion BioPharma was acquired by Evonik Industries AG for cosmetics & food supplements applications.

The same founding team created Alkion BioInnovations in March 2017 in order to develop disruptive pharmaceutical & agri-food solutions. The company owns the exclusive rights on these applications.

In 2018, the team was granted the first historical R&D license from French authorities for their work on Cannabis and major & minor cannabinoids.

Our mission

  • Excellence in Plant Sciences

    Reach state-of-the-art plant technologies.
  • Innovations

    Transform Plant Sciences into a meaningful, profitable and highly scalable innovation to improve the condition of mankind.
  • Social and environmental impact

    Offer industrial solutions for worldwide environmental, economical & social impact. Bring the highest quality, traceability and consistency to the market at affordable prices and in a sustainable way.

     

Our awards

Laureate of EIC Accelerator

Alkion has been recognised as a top-notch and sustainable deeptech start up by the European Innovation Council Accelerator. The €5M award in total is supporting the scaling up of Alkion’s technology in a disruptive pilot biorefinery on critical pharmaceutical projects.

Laureate of IPA4SME – June 2020 & 2021

It offers a €15k grant for IP expenses.

Laureate of Plan de Relance – May 2021: AlkaBurst

Alkion has won a €500k grant.

Our project is the production of QS-7/21 adjuvant from Quillaja Saponaria, & 2 special biosimilars from Nicotania produced in large scale bioreactors.

Laureate of i-Nov Program – Oct 2018: NeGenSweet

Alkion has won a €718k grant+R&D loan for the production of mabinlin extracts from plants in large scale bioreactors.

Laureate of SME Instrument Phase I – Oct 2017

Supervised by the European Commission, this program offers a grant of Eur 50.000 for a concept or feasibility study.

Our project is to validate the feasibility of the production of mabinlin extracts from plants produced in bioreactors. Tests have been realised also for Rebaudiosides (stevia), Brazzein (Penta-diplandra) & Thaumatin ( Thaumatococcus Daniellii)

Laureate of the New technology venture accelerator (Netva) 2017

NETVA is a program of preparation and exposure to high-tech US markets for young innovative French companies. It is run by the Office for Science & Technology of the Embassy of France in the United States in three locations: Boston, San Francisco, Toronto and Washington, DC. Each year, 20 French startups are selected though a national competition after evaluation by juries in France and the program’s four north-American cities.

Winner of “Coup de main” prize from La Fabrique Aviva (2nd edition) 2017

Social Entrepreneurship competition created by the insurer Aviva.

Prize: 10 000 €

Laureate of Plant new generation accelerator (l’Usine du Future) 2017

Scientipole Initiatives is the Ile de France-based Tech accelerator for young and promising start-ups covering 4 technological fields of innovations.

Winner of the 18th I-lab 2016

French National Innovative Business Creation Competition

The I-LAB contest is organized by the Minister of Research and BPI France and is aimed to reward and encourage the most innovative and promising startups in France

Our labs

Alkion BioInnovations’ labs are located inside the prestigious INRAE research center in Versailles, France.