Unilever signs deal with Ampere Life Sciences

Unilever today announced that it has entered into a partnership with Silicon Valley-based Ampere Life Sciences to access Ampere's Digital Biology™ technology platform and secure exclusive rights for the development of innovative consumer products. Terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

The 5-year initiative will bring together a worldwide team of Unilever and Ampere scientists working on the core biology of ageing. The programme is targeting a range of benefit areas of interest to Unilever.

Unilever's Chief R&D Officer, Genevieve Berger said, "This deal is an example of Unilever's approach to open innovation, partnering scientists from outside Unilever with specific biotech assets and knowledge with our own in-house science and development experts based in our six core laboratories across the world.

"I see the key benefits of this partnership with Ampere being a commitment to develop superior products across a number of categories and exclusivity that will potentially give us competitive advantage in the marketplace."

As consumer demand for healthy living and ageing products increases, Unilever is strategically positioning itself to meet this need through combining its own considerable R&D resource with complimentary technical assets. Ampere's technology platform will enable Unilever to build differentiated antioxidant-containing products spanning multiple product categories.

Work on the project will begin immediately.

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