Biotech Updates

Engineered Yeast to Help Boost Drug Supply

May 31, 2023

Synthetic biology can be used to make more drugs or raw materials for the transformation of the pharmaceutical supply chains. This is according to Dr. Christian Smolke, CEO and co-founder of Antheia—science and technology company developing next-generation plant-inspired medicines.

Dr. Smolke explained that this transformation could be achieved through the use of engineered yeast that can yield active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). This breakthrough could lead to the reduction of drug shortages through less dependence on ingredients derived from nature. She said that sourcing active ingredients from nature is very inefficient and time-consuming. To address this problem, Antheia developed engineered yeast to produce APIs. The yeast is grown in a fermenter, thus, can make a batch of purified product in less time.

To date, Antheia has approximately 70 active ingredients in the pipeline, and the first batch will be produced in full-scale this 2023.

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