By Jennielou Pigao

Mariano Marcos State University reached another milestone in its R&D initiatives as Black Garlic, commercialized by BauerTek Farmaceutical Technologies Corp, secured the Gold Award (Pharma Category) and a Special International Award during the E-NNOVATE International Invention & Innovation Summit, held May 16-18, 2024 at Krakow, Poland. Black Garlic is one of the banner R&D products of the university. 

MMSU’s industry partner, BauerTek, and inventors Richard and Rigel Gomez, assisted in the black garlic’s conversion from a research experiment into a full-blown commercial product. The packaged black garlic is aimed at helping patients with nerve disorders and certain forms of cancer.

E-NNOVATE is an annual event supported by the Polish Government in partnership with the International Federation of Inventors Associations. This year’s summit featured more than 200 entries from 25 countries, competing along 20 categories such as Agriculture and Aquaculture, Energy, Drones and UAV, Pharma, Transport and Logistics, Chemistry, Medicine, Biotechnology and Medical Devices, Nanotechnology, Environment, Healthcare/Fitness, Food Technology, Information Technology, Safety/Security/Protection, Young Inventors, Industry 4.0, Electronics/Robotics/IoT, Education, Zero Waste Technologies, Home and Lifestyle, and Aerospace/Space Technology and Rockets.

MMSU President Shirley C. Agrupis who also serves as the project leader of MMSU’s black garlic production program, expressed her pride in this victory. “This proves that our R&D products are not only ripe for commercialization, they are potentially competitive on an international scale.”