DuPont Industrial Biosciences is paying $75 million to acquire the enzyme and technology assets of Dyadic, a financially struggling US biotech firm based at Jupiter, Florida. The deal – set to close by the end of this year if Dyadic shareholders agree – includes the biotech firm’s C1 platform, a fungal expression technology for producing enzymes, well as liquid and dry enzyme products used in a broad range of industries.

“The C1 platform complements DuPont's world-class enzyme expression systems and provides additional operational flexibility to bring our strong innovation pipeline to market," said DuPont Industrial Biosciences President William F. Feehery. Integrating Dyadic's commercial enzyme portfolio into DuPont’s own bioscience portfolio will give the chemical group a new customer base and allow it to offer offering additional product choices to its existing customers in the animal nutrition, food and beverage, and other industrial markets, Feehery said.

DuPont has been investing heavily in its biosciences business. The Delaware group recently dedicated a new cellulosic biofuel facility in Nevada, Iowa, which it say is the world’s largest, with capacity to produce 30 million gallons per year of clean fuel derived from corn stover. In July, it signed an agreement to license its technology and supply enzymes to Jilin Province New Tianlong Industry Co. Dyadic has conducted extensive enzyme research and developed business relationships in the area of biofuels which are expected to further support DuPont's position in the cellulosic sector.

Commenting on the sale, founder and Dyadic CEO Mark Emalfarb called it “an exceptional opportunity to unlock value and provide operational flexibility to further develop our pharmaceutical business,” To this end, the company has signed an agreement with Sanofi Pasteur to use enzymes to boost yields of proteins used a key ingredient in vaccines.

The finances of the Florida biotech firm indicate that DuPont is “paying a hefty multiple,” anaylsts said. In a regulatory filing, Dyadic reported $11 million in assets as of mid-2014. In announcing the sale plans, the company said its $66 million in accumulated losses would be used to offset the tax gain from the transaction.