In the podcast episode we´ll get to meet a young entrepreneur who has established an innovative biotech company together with his family and get to know how the company focusing on the development and commercialization of natural health products from prawn byproducts.
Episode written and produced by Erik Liland.
Interviewees: Andreas Semmingsen, CEO Marealis and Ragnhild Dragøy, Research Director, NOFIMA, the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research
Music: Licensed by Motion Array; Original northern lights audio recording provided courtesy of NASA and The University of Iowa (Space Audio); music licensed by Soundation AB; arrangement by Sarah Mackie.
The views and opinions in this podcast do not necessarily reflect those of the Arctic Initiative, the Belfer Center or Harvard Kennedy School.
Sarah Mackie
Hello everyone, and welcome to Northern Lights. The Harvard Arctic Initiative student podcast. Many of you will have seen Netflix’ controversial new documentary about the fishing industry. The documentary highlighted some of the worst aspects of the fishing industry, but today we want to draw attention to some of the more positive aspects of fishing.
In this podcast episode, Erik Liland brings us a story about one innovation which is leading to a more sustainable use of prawn byproduct … and making inroads into solving a major public health problem at the same time.
Eric is a graduate of Nord University in Norway. Having been born and raised in the Arctic, Eric is passionate about promoting the Arctic and the economic opportunities which can be found there.
This is Erik Liland with Science from the Sea.
Erik Liland
Hi and welcome to the Arctic Initiative and this podcast from the Arctic. My name is Erik Liland and today I will be shining light on one of the major industries in the Arctic. The fishery and aquaculture industry, and how they can help build a more sustainable future for us all.
The Arctic part of Norway produces one and a half million tons of seafood every year. This industry also generates enormous amounts of byproducts. This can be head, skin and bones from the fish and shells and from the crabs and prawns. Today you'll get to know the company behind one of the greatest innovations in utilizing byproduct from prawns.
With us we have a young entrepreneur from the family owned business, Stella Polaris, which is one of the world's leading producers of cold-water prawns. Welcome Andreas!
Andreas Semmingsen Thank you so much Erik. Erik Liland
How you doing?
Andreas Semmingsen
I'm doing great. Happy to be here.
Erik Liland
That's nice, yeah.
Erik Liland
Andreas, tell us: how is Stella Polaris different from other prawn suppliers?
Andreas Semmingsen
First of all, I think it's about the innovation piece that we have done, which you mentioned, and that's why we're here. I suppose. To talk about the innovation we've done with the with the prawn shells. So we have taken something that has been historically seen as an underutilized resource and found a high value usage for that for that earlier wastage product. The other thing that's also special with Solaris I would say it's that it's still a family owned business. So Stella Polaris was founded actually by my grandfather and it was also run by my family. My father, my uncles and my aunts. And now I'm working with a with a daughter company of Stella Polaris, Marealis so it's still very much a family owned business. And it has a strong local connection to the small village where I grew up.
Erik Liland
I’m wondering: how important is the local ownership and that it’s a family that runs the company and it's a cornerstone company from the village that you come from. How important is it?
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, I think, at least in some cases it can be very important, I think. Oftentimes you see that locally owned businesses give more back to the community, both employees and other companies in in the area.
Erik Liland
And maybe it's gives some side effects like people in the schools and local shop than grocery store.
Andreas Semmingsen
Of course, of course.
Andreas Semmingsen
Of course, absolutely. That said, there there can be huge companies owned by huge companies that is also giving a lot back to the community.
Andreas Semmingsen
So so, but oftentimes my experience is that local ownership is important.
Erik Liland
Local ownership is, yeah.
Erik Liland
Now, can you please tell me more about the story of the company that you represent and how you have managed to utilize the bi-product from the prawns?
Andreas Semmingsen
Yes, absolutely. I'm very excited to tell that story, because I come from the company Marialis which is 100% owned by Sella Polaris, as we just talked about.
Andreas Semmingsen
Marealis was founded in 2007 and is a result of a initiative by Stella Polaris of trying to utilize the prawn shells. So already in the early 2000s Stella Polaris was looking for ways to use the prawn shells, and in 2007 they were made aware of a finding by a researcher from the governmental institution of Fishery and Science who had found that peptides, so small protein fractions in prawn shells could actually have a potent blood pressure lowering effect.
Andreas Semmingsen
And this was of course a very interesting finding for us in Stella Polaris, and Marealis was created and a colleague of mine was was put to dedicate the work of developing the product and we spent time with along with NOFIMA, the Norwegian institution of fishery in science, and with the Arctic University of Tromsø developing the product.
Erik Liland
So you’re actually using shrimp shells to lowering blood pressure, how is that even possible?
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, no, that's not the first thing you would think of when you think of prawn shells, that this will lower your blood pressure. And yeah, it's extraordinary and it's a founding by, as I said, you take the peptides out from the prawn shells and you extract them and concentrate them in a way that makes them actually work as a natural ACE inhibitor, so it actually has to some degree the same working mechanism as one of the major medication used.
Erik Liland
So it's backed up by science, the product.
Andreas Semmingsen
Absolutely, that's the other thing. It's it's been a result of more than 10 years, 10 to 12 years of product development, innovation and clinical testing documenting, the products efficacy, yeah.
Erik Liland
To give us some more insight about the evidence, I've spoken to Ragnhild Dragøy, research director at the governmental institution of Fishery and Science. A friend of yours?
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, I know her.
Erik Liland
Let's hear what she had to say when I spoke to her earlier today.
Erik Liland
Today I'm talking to the biotech company Marealis. They claim to have made a health product from prawn shells that is supposed to lower blood pressure. How is that possible?
Ragnhild Dragøy
It is possible to lower blood pressure by using a product from shrimp peels by finding bio active peptides in the shrimp peel, testing it for activity also in human beings, and making sure that you can scale and make reproducible product out of shrimp peels.
Erik Liland
And they have spent a whole decade in developing and documenting the product and its effects. Are you familiar with this work and the result?
Ragnhild Dragøy
I'm very familiar with the work it started in collaboration with know NOFIMA well over a decade ago actually. And then they developed bio active peptides from shrimp peels in a certain processing way. They found ways to test it to scale it, to presented to the industry, tablet in forms that were available to the consumers. It was also tested in human beings to make sure that it had an effect on the blood pressure, and they've now found ways to commercialize it and have it approved in several countries.
Erik Liland
So how well is this blood pressure lowering effect documented?
Ragnhild Dragøy
It's the blood pressure lowering effect is documented according to all the regulations and rules that you have to have when you do clinical trials in human being. And so that has helped Marealis get approved for claims on their health product, which is very exciting.
Erik Liland
What has NOFIMAs role in this project been?
Ragnhild Dragøy
NOFIMAs role in this project was initially to develop the bio active peptides, then further on in collaboration with Marealis, we have helped them scale it, optimize it, ensure reproducibility and ensure that they can produce enough to put it on the market.
Erik Liland
How important is it for the fishery industry to find ways like this to utilize byproducts?
Ragnhild Dragøy
Utilizing bi-product is important for sustainable food production and sustainable usage of the biomass that we have in the ocean here up North. It's extremely important that we use everything that we can and that we take out as little as we can and make as much value of it as we can and as much food as we can from i.
Erik Liland
How can this help influence a more sustainable food production?
Ragnhild Dragøy
Utilizing side streams helps influence a sustainable food production by making as much food as you can, from as little as you can of the bio mass, and that is sustainable and it causes less transportation and more food for a growing population.
Erik Liland
Thank you for participating in the Arctic Initiative podcast Ragnhild!
Ragnhild Dragøy
Thank you for having me. It was very fun.
Erik Liland
What do you think of these words from Ragnhild, Andreas?
Andreas Semmingsen
NOFIMA has played a major role, or the Norwegian institution of Fishery and Science, they've played a major role in the development of Precardix and they know what they're talking about, so those kind words are very much appreciated.
Erik Liland
So how important have the cooperation between the science that they can give and the the innovation, yeah.
Andreas Semmingsen
Very, definitely very important! We’re lucky in Norway to have institutions like that to partner with and to work with on the research project like this. I would also like to say that we're also lucky to have Innovation Norway, who has played a major role for us providing funding in the project. So, Norway has a lot of, the Arctic has a lot of benefits of doing R&D work here.
Erik Liland
You and your family, and the company have spent over a decade and millions of dollars to developing this product. And I think maybe some of the listeners are wondering why?
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, I wouldn't blame them for wondering that. The history is that, as I think I mentioned, the prawn shells has been an underutilized resource. So, before going into this project, the prawn shells was pumped out in the ocean, so it wasn't used at all. And in the prawn industry more than 60% of the prawn is actually seen as a waste product, so only 40% is used for human consumption. So that's why Stella Polaris was looking for ways to use the remaining 60%. And of course, there's a financial motivation as well. We hope that by developing this extraordinary groundbreaking product that we will, we will make it a commercial success story as well, and and make back some of the money that we spent.
Erik Liland
So have you started selling it or is it commercialized?
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, to a degree I would say. We have spent the last two years working in the Canadian marketplace, so we just launched the product in Canada and it will be launched in in US as well, in the first quarter of next year and we're also working with partners launched the product in UK and in specific countries in West Africa actually.
Erik Liland
How many people can benefit from this product? Is high blood pressure a big issue?
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, I would say it's a major health issue in the world. I think high blood pressure is known as the biggest indirective cause of deaths in the Western world, and so no, it's it. And I think more than 50% of humans in the Western world have high blood pressure or elevated blood pressure. So for us the main target group is the people who have just starting to increase their blood pressure, but is not necessarily having to be put on medication, so it's a natural health product, so we're not competing with medicines, but we can be a substitute or not a substitute really. But in addition to a healthy lifestyle and diet.
Erik Liland
But let's go back to the sustainability part. How important is that for the company that you're representing?
Andreas Semmingsen
Oh, that's very important. I would say sustainability, ethics, working to make the world a better place. And it's it sounds like a cliche, but that's why that's very important to us and both Stella Polaris and Marealis. We have been very, very caution of doing right things right. So as an example, we could have rushed the product to the market, but we haven't. We have spent as you are mentioning decades of research and product development and millions of dollars to develop the product. And we were also a Certified B Corp which is a certification process you go through to prove that you're a company that is not only for profit. So I think the slogan is: Company is using business as a force of good, and we're very proud to be a B Corp company.
Erik Liland
That's very inspiring. And then do you think that your company maybe can inspire other companies in the fishing industry to do the same?
Andreas Semmingsen
That would be fantastic, for sure. We've been inspired by others, and there's certainly starting to be a become a growing trend of biotech companies here in the North. And it's a lot of as you mentioned in the introduction, a lot of volumes moved here in the fishery industry, so there's a lot of bi-products that can be utilized, and so we just need to have the knowledge and have the financial muscles to dare to start working on that, and I hope if we can inspire some people to do that, that would be amazing for sure.
Erik Liland
It sounds maybe that you're more than a company. You're trying to make a greater impact not only to the Arctic region, but to the whole world.
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, for sure. Our vision is that we can use something that would have been discarded so we can help improve sustainability, but we can also help solve one of the major health issues in the world as we discuss, and by doing both those two things: nothing would make me sleep better at night than being able to participate doing that.
Erik Liland
So that's the main goal, and that's what you're trying to achieve with the company.
Andreas Semmingsen
Yeah, and we also want to be one of the, like I mentioned, we have created a unique competence. I would say in product development by doing all this research, and if we can use that knowledge
to also look at other species like Cod heads or salmen skin or other bi-products from the fishery industry and become a company who is using bi-products from the marine industry to create health benefits. That's a long term vision and goal for us as a company.
Erik Liland
So you’re sharing the knowledge with other companies or partnering up with other companies to utilize more of the bi-products from other species?
Andreas Semmingsen
Absolutely. We don't have any fish, cod or salmon. But we have a lot of companies here in the region and we are very happy to collaborate and work together to improve and create new products.
Erik Liland
Interesting! To wrap this up at the end of the podcast. What key insights can the listener bring home after listening to us today?
Andreas Semmingsen
Well, first of all that shrimp shells can lower blood pressure.
Andreas Semmingsen
That's a fun fact you can use. So, I think the key thing is that there's a lot of value in things that you wouldn't necessarily think has value and that waste products can actually have a huge impact if you use it right, and if you are patient and do your research, you can get to a good place, yeah?
Erik Liland
It was really interesting to talk to you and I hope the listener maybe learned a thing or two about the the fishery and aquaculture innovation that's ongoing in the Arctic Region of Norway.
Erik Liland
Yeah, thank you for participating in the Arctic Initiative podcast.
Andreas Semmingsen
Thank you so much for having me. It was a pleasure!
Sarah Mackie
Today's episode was written and produced by Erik Liland. We would like to thank Andreas Semmingsen, CEO of Marealis and Ragnhild Dragøy, Research Director at NOFIMA, the Norwegian Institute of Food, Fisheries and Aquaculture Research.This podcast was created as part of the Harvard Kennedy School Arctic Initiative Podcast project led by Dr Sarah Mackie.