UK – Ivy Farm Technologies, a UK-based cultured meat company, has announced that its CEO, Richard Dillon, is stepping down after leading the firm for over three years.
Dillon will transition to a new role as a non-executive director on the board of the company.
Harsh Amin, currently serving as the company’s Chief Scientific Officer, will take over as the interim CEO.
Dillon’s tenure was marked by technological developments, the creation of an extensive intellectual property portfolio, overseeing crucial regulatory submissions, and assembling a strong scientific, engineering, and commercial team at Ivy Farm’s headquarters in Oxford.
With Amin at the helm, the company will focus on reducing production costs and enhancing its technology to position itself as a key player in the cultivated meat sector.
The company’s primary goal is to become the first UK firm to gain regulatory approval and achieve commercial sales of cultivated meat for human consumption.
Earlier this year, Ivy Farm announced a new collaboration with Finnish biotech company Synbio Powerlabs Oy to showcase the scalability of its mammalian cell cultivation.
This partnership will utilize Synbio Powerlabs’ upcoming production facility, which is being converted into a multi-use site for cultivated meat and fermentation-based protein production.
Located near Helsinki, the facility is backed by a €2.99 million (US$3.24 million) government grant and is expected to begin operations early next year.
The plant will include pilot-scale equipment with production capacities of 10,000 and 27,000 liters, along with six 250,000-liter manufacturing vessels.
Once operational, it is set to become the largest facility of its kind worldwide, aiming to support alternative protein companies in bringing their products to market more quickly.
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