Costa Food Group, Càrniques Celrà and Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI create Glicopepton Biotech to produce high technological value compounds from pork by-products

The plant will be located in Fraga, on an area of 25,000 m² and its construction will involve a joint investment of approximately 40 million euros

The project will create 50 jobs in Aragon

This initiative embodies the concept of circular economy and brings the pork and pharmaceutical sectors together for a ground-breaking project

 Glicopepton Biotech is a joint venture that represents the constitution of one of the first national-level platforms for the self-supply of heparins and high nutritional value products for the production of animal feed and fertilisers in Spain. The initiative stems from a collaboration between the Aragonese agri-food group Costa Food Group (from Grupo Costa), Laboratorios Farmacéuticos ROVI and the meat group Càrniques Celrà.

The project comprises the creation of a plant that will be located at the Industrial Logistics Platform of Fraga (Huesca) with a surface area of 25,000 m². Approximately 40 million euros will be jointly invested for its construction. It is estimated that the initiative will generate 30 direct and 20 indirect jobs and create a highly qualified team.

The initiative embodies the concept of circular economy and brings together the pork and pharmaceutical sectors. This project pursues, on the one hand, the creation of both economic and technological value by transforming pig mucosa into a biotechnological product of high added value, such as heparin, and, on the other hand, the development of fertilisers and new food supplements for animals.

Glicopepton Biotech combines ROVI’s experience as a leading company in the research of low molecular weight heparins (LMWH) with the positioning of Costa Food Group, the third largest European pork group, and the experience of Càrniques Celrà, a leading meat producer. LMWH is an anticoagulant drug used to prevent and treat venous thromboembolism. It is a biological product, and its raw material is obtained from the intestinal mucosa of pigs.

With Glicopepton Biotech, a platform for research and development will be created that will also seek to increase the value of the rest of the products generated in this process to be used as high nutritional value animal feed or fertilisers. The project will apply for the corresponding administrative and regulatory permits and authorisations.

A major project for Aragon

The presentation was attended by the president of the Government of Aragon, Javier Lambán, and the minister for Economy, Planning and Employment, Marta Gastón. In the words of the president, “this innovative project places Aragon in a position of leadership and contributes to the diversification of the Aragonese economy within sectors such as the agri-food and pharmaceutical industries, while strengthening the circular economy. I get the impression that it will be the origin of many other industrial developments. Aragon can be satisfied that it is hosting such an important project”.

For his part, Jorge Costa, CEO of Costa Food Group, highlighted the importance of this project for Aragon: “Our group is proud to be able to attract this prestigious biotechnological project to our region and increase the value of our autonomous community’s pork sector through a circular economy, with the support of the pharmaceutical sector. The creation of the Glicopepton Biotech plant in Fraga also allows us to draw on the talent in Aragon, an objective which is in line with our strategy to generate quality employment in rural areas.”

Juan López-Belmonte Encina, president and CEO of ROVI, pointed out “the strategic importance of a project of these characteristics for Spain, since it enables the country to be self-sufficient in obtaining raw material which is necessary for the production of an essential drug such as low molecular weight heparins. At ROVI we are very excited about this project, since, as a company specialising in these drugs, it will allow us to take another step forward in the vertical integration of our manufacturing of low molecular weight heparins (LMWH)”.

Xavier Roca Masmitjà, general director of Càrniques Celrà and Olot Meats explained: “Until now, the mucosa was exported to other countries to obtain heparin. With this project, we join forces with the Spanish pharmaceutical industry and the third largest European pork producer to manufacture heparin in our own country and thus strengthen our health resources which are so essential, as the recent COVID crisis has shown. We are proud to be able to obtain this drug with the maximum sanitary guarantees and with complete traceability, making use of all the by-products and bringing high added value to our industry”.

About Grupo Costa and Costa Food Group

Grupo Costa, based in Aragon, currently has the third largest livestock population in Europe under the name of Piensos Costa and is present in the agri-food, renewable energy, automotive, crop protection, hotel and real estate sectors. Within the agri-food sector, where the group also owns SOMMOS Winery and Oliba Green Beer, it operates in 107 countries through the Costa Food Group holding, the fourth largest meat group in Spain, which comprises the Costa Food Meat, Casademont, Ibéricos Costa, Villar, Aviserrano, Roler, La Alegría and Juan Luna brands. Thanks to all these brands, the entire production process of pork, chicken and turkey is fully supervised from the farm to the table, with the inherent premise of all Costa Food products: to be natural from the start.

Grupo Costa is currently present in eleven autonomous communities: Aragon, Catalonia, Navarre, Andalusia, Castile and León, Castilla-La Mancha, the Valencian Community, Extremadura, Basque Country, Murcia and La Rioja.  It generates 5,000 jobs and its turnover in 2021 amounted to 1,750 million euros.

Costa Food Group is also the first white pork producer to have been awarded the AENOR Animal Welfare certification and 80% of its 1,250 pig and poultry farms are located in rural areas.

About ROVI

ROVI is a specialist pan-European pharmaceutical company is and dedicated to research, development, licensed manufacturing and commercialisation of small molecules and biological specialities. The company, which is in a continuous process of international expansion, has subsidiaries in Portugal, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and Poland, and owns a diverse portfolio of over 40 products on the market. Its leading product, Bemiparin, is already sold in 89 countries around the world. ROVI also began to market the biosimilar of enoxaparin in 2017. It was developed internally in Europe and is now available in 38 countries. ROVI continues to develop its ISM® Platform technology, a line of cutting-edge research in the field of prolonged drug release with proven advantages. For further information, please visit www.rovi.es

About Càrniques Celrà

Càrniques Celrà is a company which specialises in pork meat processing and is located in Celrà (Girona). It began its activity as a cutting room in October 2011, and was designed and built for export, with installations, workflows and personnel prepared to comply with the highest global standards of health, food hygiene and animal welfare. It currently exports 90% of its production to countries such as China, Japan, France, South Korea, the Philippines, Chile and Taiwan. In June 2012, it acquired a 70% stake in the (now) Olot Meats S.A. slaughterhouse, which has been fully renovated and its slaughter capacity increased to manage 18,000 pigs per day. In addition, the high investments made in cold rooms, state-of-the-art cooling tunnels, robotisation, solar panels and water purification guarantee a safe, modern, efficient and environmentally friendly production process to achieve meat of the highest quality.