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Biocatalysis
Selectivity that chemistry struggles with, at manufacturing scale.
Why an enzymatic step
130 steps manufactured. Enzymatic steps deliver selectivity that chemistry struggles with, particularly chiral centers that would otherwise need a resolution and lose half the material.
Biocatalysis uses natural catalysts and offers environmentally friendly and cost-effective alternatives to traditional chemical synthesis. The platform covers the whole problem: enzyme screening, enzyme evolution, enzyme fermentation, and then process development and production.
Capability and capacity
- Experience with 20+ common biocatalysis reaction types
- An in-house library of 3,000+ enzymes and 200,000+ variants
- Laboratories able to handle 10 to 15 projects simultaneously
- 22,850 L of fermenter volume in total, the largest fermenter 10,000 L
Enzyme classes run routinely
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The last two classes are where this platform meets the oligonucleotide and peptide work.
Case study: three-fold yield on a key starting material
The molecule is a key chiral regulatory starting material for a late-stage API, and a proprietary enzyme was evolved to improve the yield.
- Original route: 5 steps, 30% yield over 5 steps, process mass intensity above 100
- Enzymatic route: 2 steps using a proprietary enzyme, 90% yield over 2 steps, process mass intensity below 20
The transaminase itself was evolved from a natural enzyme with conversion below 2% to an evolved enzyme with conversion above 95%, after two rounds of evolution.
Four workstreams ran in parallel, with sample transport and data shared from the upstream to the downstream teams as the work proceeded.
Inside containment
Biocatalysis is available for high potency compounds at an occupational exposure limit of 10 ng/m³.