Pivotal Evolva Stevia Sweetener Patent Receives US Notice of Allowance

19 Dec 2016 --- Evolva have announced that it has received a Notice of Allowance for a pivotal patent application (US 2013/0171328) from the US Patent & Trademark Office covering the most commercially viable production method for manufacturing the best-tasting steviol glycosides. This grant is expected to occur early 2017.

Of particular commercial importance, this patent protects key steps in the production of rebaudioside A (Reb A), rebaudioside D (Reb D), and rebaudioside M (Reb M) by a number of production methods including fermentation, bioconversion or other approaches. Evolva was the first company to identify and characterise the enzymes for key steps in the Reb A, Reb D and Reb M biosynthesis pathways.

Including this most recent patent, Evolva now has 6 granted and 69 pending applications around the world (including 10 in the US and 5 in Europe) related to production of steviol glycosides by various methods including fermentation, bioconversion or in plants. In May, Evolva was granted a European patent (EP2742142) that enables organisms to express highly attractive pathways for producing steviol glycosides.

Evolva and Cargill have an exclusive collaboration on the production and commercialization of stevia sweeteners by fermentation, and are co-developing the next-generation stevia sweetener, EverSweetTM, which is a combination of Reb D and Reb M.

Evolva will be providing a more general update on the status of its stevia program and collaboration in the first half of January 2017.