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Ending drug shortages with synthetic biology

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Nature is our most powerful source of medicine

While nature has provided the foundation for modern medicine, it wasn’t designed to meet the scale and demand of 21st century healthcare needs. Today’s pharmaceutical supply chains are largely reliant on fragile agricultural sources with low predictability, resulting in drug shortages that ultimately impact patient care.

Nature is our most powerful source of medicine

While nature has provided the foundation for modern medicine, it wasn’t designed to meet the scale and demand of 21st century healthcare needs.

Today’s pharmaceutical supply chains are largely reliant on fragile agricultural sources with low predictability, resulting in drug shortages that ultimately impact patient care.

We manufacture essential medicines

Antheia leverages synthetic biology to produce biosynthetic Key Starting Materials (KSMs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for essential medicines in a more efficient, agile, and sustainable approach. Our platform enables resilient and scalable pharmaceutical supply chains, domestic and rapid-response manufacturing, and more equitable channels of distribution. Synthetic biology has the potential to transform supply chains and unlock new opportunities in drug development and discovery.

See Our Pipeline

A revolutionary alternative to legacy approaches

The USDA cites that 40% of Western drugs are derived from plants. These medicines are sourced in an agricultural process that is typically inefficient, inflexible, and highly susceptible to climate events, inconsistent soil health, pests, and diseases. We need a more efficient, sustainable, and reliable approach than legacy agricultural-based sources.

Supply Chain

Agricultural sources can have unpredictable yields. Manufacturing in contained fermentation environments offers a more reliable, controlled, and consistent supply.

Resource Utilization

Agricultural-based manufacturing is inefficient and expensive. Purpose-built biomanufacturing facilities reduce the need for agricultural sourcing and the associated costs, environmental impacts, and long timelines.

Novel Solution

Chemical synthesis is not suitable for KSMs and APIs of greater complexity. Synthetic biology – the most advanced 21st century technology – enables efficient biomanufacturing of pharma ingredients of unprecedented complexity.

Setting a new standard for pharma manufacturing

Efficiency

Reduced timelines from years to weeks

Speed

Reduced timelines from years to weeks

Sustainability

Reduced environmental footprint

Agility

On-demand and low-latency capabilities

Reliability

Predictable and consistent yields

Innovation

Revolutionary approach to pharma manufacturing

See Our Platform

Fortifying pharmaceutical supply chains is urgent

+ 0 billion

+2 billion people worldwide
lack access to basic medicines.

- World Health Organization

~ 71 %

~78% of API manufacturers are
located outside of the U.S.

- FDA

44 /year

Up to 50 new drug shortages per year
for the last decade.

- FDA / Brookings Institute

1 years

1.5 years is the average duration
of a drug shortage.

- Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee report

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Engineering the most complex biosynthesis pathways in yeast

Our biomanufacturing platform enables efficient, reliable, and at-scale commercial manufacturing for pharmaceutical products.

We manufacture essential medicines

Antheia leverages synthetic biology to produce biosynthetic Key Starting Materials (KSMs) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) for essential medicines in a more efficient, agile, and sustainable approach. Our platform enables resilient and scalable pharmaceutical supply chains, domestic and rapid-response manufacturing, and more equitable access to critical medicines. Synthetic biology will transform pharmaceutical supply chains and has the potential to unlock new opportunities in drug development and discovery. 

See Our Pipeline

A revolutionary alternative to legacy approaches

The USDA cites that 40% of Western drugs are derived from plants. These medicines are sourced in an agricultural process that is typically inefficient, inflexible, and highly susceptible to climate events, inconsistent soil health, pests, and diseases. We need a more efficient, sustainable, and reliable approach than legacy agricultural-based sources.

Supply chain

Agricultural sources can have unpredictable yields. Manufacturing in contained fermentation environments offers a more reliable, controlled, and consistent supply.

Resource utilization

Agricultural-based manufacturing is inefficient and expensive. Purpose-built biomanufacturing facilities reduce the need for agricultural sourcing and the associated costs, environmental impacts, and long timelines.

Novel solution

Chemical synthesis is not suitable for KSMs and APIs of greater complexity. Synthetic biology – the most advanced 21st century technology – enables efficient biomanufacturing of pharma ingredients of unprecedented complexity.

Fortifying pharmaceutical supply chains is urgent

+ 0 billion

+2 billion people worldwide
lack access to basic medicines.

- World Health Organization

~ 52 %

~78% of API manufacturers are
located outside of the U.S.

- FDA

41 /year

Up to 50 new drug shortages per year
for the last decade.

- FDA / Brookings Institute

0.1 years

1.5 years is the average duration
of a drug shortage.

- Homeland Security & Government Affairs Committee report

Engineering the most complex biosynthesis pathways in yeast

Our biomanufacturing platform enables efficient, reliable, and at-scale commercial manufacturing for pharmaceutical products.

Setting a new standard for pharma manufacturing

Efficiency

Reduced costs and optimized resources

Speed

Reduced timelines from years to weeks

Agility

On-demand and low-latency capabilities

Reliability

Predictable and consistent yields

Sustainability

Reduced environmental footprint

Innovation

Revolutionary approach to pharma manufacturing
See Our Platform

Engineering the most complex biosynthesis pathways in yeast

Our biomanufacturing platform enables efficient, reliable, and at-scale commercial manufacturing for pharmaceutical products.

Antheia in the news

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Industry News

Secretary of State Antony Blinken visits the Bay Area

Antony Blinken tours Antheia biotech lab, emphasizing its potential to address nationwide medicine shortages by overcoming supply chain issues with advanced bio-technology...
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Podcast

Industry News

“What’s Your Problem?” Podcast: Getting Yeast to Make Medicine

Antheia is a synthetic biology company in the business of genetically engineering microorganisms to produce commercial products....
Read

Industry News

This Scientist-Entrepreneur Is Brewing Prescription Drug Ingredients Like They Were Beer

On Thursday, the company announced it has completed its first commercial-scale fermentation run, which resulted in the production of 116,000liters of thebaine, a key ingredient...
Read

Industry News

Forbes’ Top Ten Women Founders in the Synthetic Biology Industry

Our co-founder and CEO, Christina Smolke, was named to Forbes’ list of top ten women founders taking the synthetic biology world by storm. From her...
Read

Industry News

Syn Bio Companies Put the Earth into Focus

While some synthetic biology companies are using biology to improve our food, clothes, and medicine, others are turning their attention to helping the Earth....
Read

Industry News

Synthetic-Biology Startup Antheia Raises $73 Million

Antheia Inc., a startup using synthetic biology to produce medicines currently sourced from plants, has raised $73 million in new venture-capital financing......
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The pandemic has exposed our broken pharma supply chain. Synthetic biology and brewer’s yeast could fix it

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The pandemic has exposed our broken pharma supply chain. Synthetic biology and brewer’s yeast could fix it

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The pandemic has exposed our broken pharma supply chain. Synthetic biology and brewer’s yeast could fix it

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The pandemic has exposed our broken pharma supply chain. Synthetic biology and brewer’s yeast could fix it

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Richard Sherwin

Head of Commercialization

Richard is an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience in the KSM, API, and intermediate markets. He is responsible for leading the commercialization and revenue generation for Antheia’s robust pipeline of products. Richard brings an exceptional track record of leading international sales teams, driving revenue growth, building strategic partnerships, and delivering innovative products to market, including ANDA and NDA developments. Richard led commercial efforts at some of the leading global pharmaceutical companies and most recently, built his own consultancy business advising a range of clients, including $1B divisions of major multinationals.

Appropriate regulatory submissions will be prepared and submitted to support Antheia’s customers who need to reference and access necessary process-related information.

Yihui Zhu, PhD

Head of Fermentation

Yihui leads the fermentation team at Antheia. With over 25 years of hands-on experience in the field, he brings in-depth knowledge and expertise in microbial metabolism and fermentation process development. He is also skilled in developing comprehensive fermentation data collection, analysis, and visualization systems. Prior to joining Antheia, he served as a fermentation lead at Intrexon and Codexis where he successfully built fermentation labs and teams and led multiple biofuel and biochemical projects to reach stretch milestones and tech transfer. Yihui is passionate about the potential of fermentation and is dedicated to advancing the field through innovative research and development.

Yen-Hsiang Wang, PhD

Head of Strategy, Partnerships, and Finance

Yen-Hsiang leads strategy, partnerships and finance at Antheia. He completed his M.S. and Ph.D. in Bioengineering at Stanford, with extensive research experience in synthetic biology, metabolic engineering and computational modeling. Before joining Antheia, he worked at McKinsey and Tencent with a strong focus in corporate strategy and big data/advanced analytics. At Tencent, he served as Director of Strategy and Business Development for the AI Lab, leading corporate initiatives in healthcare AI/ML applications and commercialization. He also served in AI4H (Artificial Intelligence for Health), a collaboration between WHO and ITU, to establish global standards for AI in healthcare.

Audrey Wang

Head of Financial Planning and Analysis

Audrey leads financial planning and analysis at Antheia. With an MBA from Washington University in St. Louis, Audrey is passionate about leveraging financial analysis, digital technology, and data analytics to guide companies in making optimal investments and strategic business decisions. Audrey has a decade of experience in helping companies solve unique problems and creating long-term impact with unconventional approaches. Before joining Antheia, she was at Vir Biotechnology and Merck where she led various FP&A workstreams, including investment valuation, asset prioritization, and manufacturing sites operation finance support. Audrey completed CFA Level II and passed the U.S. CPA exam in 2011.

Antonij Tjahjadi, CPA

Head of Accounting

Antonij Tjahjadi leads accounting at Antheia and holds active CPA license. He joined Antheia with more than 20 years of experience in corporate accounting, bringing deep expertise in ramping up accounting operations for start-up companies, SEC reporting/technical accounting, and SOX implementation efforts. Before joining Antheia, he held various leading roles in both public and private company settings, including directing accounting functions at Ambys Medicines, where he successfully implemented Netsuite with Point Purchasing integration and set up various accounting policies and processes, and played a key role in the initial public offering of Nutanix, Inc.

Ken Takeoka

Head of Biology

Ken leads the Biology team at Antheia, which incorporates both strain and protein engineering functions. He has more than 16 years of experience in the synthetic biology field, working with leading companies, including Amyris and Novartis. One of his passions is molecular biology tool development and he previously worked to build the foundation for the automated strain engineering pipeline at Amyris. At Novartis, he modernized the molecular biology techniques and established a platform to model mechanisms of antibiotic resistance in a range of organisms.

Suzanne Sato

Head of Downstream Processing

Suzy leads downstream chemistry processes at Antheia. She has 19 years of experience in process development, including route development through synthetic chemistry and scale-up of small molecule APIs for GPCR targets under cGMP for Phase I-III trials. Before joining Antheia, Suzy led a full DSP team at Amyris where she successfully pivoted developments from biofuels hydrocarbon products to pharmaceutical intermediate, flavor, fragrance and nutraceutical products. She led a team that scaled 11 products and took five products to commercial manufacturing.

Farrah Pulce, PMP

Head of Project Management

Farrah leads program and project management at Antheia. She has over 20 years of experience leading program and project management, operations, and engineering for companies across the CPG, aerospace, and automotive industries. Prior to joining Antheia, Farrah implemented and led the sustaining program management team at Impossible Foods. She also led product operations, project management, and cost optimization at Blue Bottle Coffee and Tyson Foods to develop and commercialize new products. As a certified project management professional (PMP), Farrah has a proven record of successful project delivery, improving project management practices, and building collaborative teams.

Jordyn Lee

Head of Communications

Jordyn leads communications and external affairs at Antheia. She brings a decade of multidisciplinary communications experience in helping companies make complex science and technology accessible to broad audiences, all while maintaining technical accuracy and integrity. She has a passion for visionary storytelling and translating impact across the entire communications ecosystem – her work has spanned from public relations to corporate communications to marketing. Jordyn has served as an advisor to a number of different life sciences companies and most recently led corporate communications at Amyris.

Ben Kotopka, PhD

Head of Data Science

As Head of Data Science at Antheia, Ben manages in-house software development and external partnerships for storing and interpreting research data, executing bioinformatics analyses, and streamlining business processes. Prior to Antheia, Ben worked as an academic researcher at the intersection of machine learning, bioinformatics, and synthetic biology. Following this, as an entrepreneur and consultant, he developed and deployed data science solutions for biotechnology applications ranging from metabolomics-driven compound discovery to MRI segmentation.

Guerin Kob

Head of Supply Chain

Guerin is responsible for leading the design, development, management and improvement of Antheia’s end-to-end global supply chain. He has over 15 years of experience leading high-performing supply chain and procurement teams at leading biotechnology and specialty chemical companies, with extensive experience in process development and end-to-end supply chain optimization. Prior to joining Antheia, Guerin served as Senior Director of Global Supply Chain for Sumitomo Chemical’s biotechnology division with Valent Biosciences, where he led the end-to end supply chain including procurement, logistics and distribution, integrated business planning, materials management, customer service, and supply planning functions globally.

Pavel Aronov, PhD

Head of Bioanalytics

Pavel leads the Bioanalytics team at Antheia. He has 20 years of experience in analytical and clinical chemistry, mass spectrometry, chromatography, and metabolomics. Pavel built and led the original Chemistry and Analytics team at Impossible Foods enabling strain development, fermentation, DSP, regulatory, QC, and scale-up of leghemoglobin biomanufacturing. During his academic career at UC Davis and Stanford University Pavel developed a vitamin D assay used by all major clinical diagnostics laboratories and pioneered metabolomics studies to investigate kidney disease and microbiome.

Jesse Ahrendt

Head of Quality Assurance and Regulatory Affairs

Jesse has more than 25 years of experience in regulatory affairs, quality systems, manufacturing quality, and regulated industries, ranging from early- to late-stage pharmaceuticals, biomanufacturing, consumer care, and medical devices. He has supported global product launches and the underlying quality supply chain components in industries that require strict adherence to internationally accepted quality standards. Before Antheia, he led quality efforts at Zymergen and Sandoz, and supported many global pharmaceutical companies during his time in Biotech Consulting at NSF International, all to bring quality to the forefront in manufacturing, standardize global processes, and support customer regulatory requirements.

Heidi Pucel

Chief People Officer

Heidi is a results-driven human resources executive and HR business partner who leverages decades of experience in empowering, motivating, and inspiring to drive transformation within high-performing and rapidly-growing workforces. A certified executive coach and passionate advocate for people-oriented solutions, Pucel serves as a partner to executive teams to design programs that support employee development, engagement, and recruitment and retention. Pucel most recently served as Chief People Officer for Countsy, where she worked as an interim HR executive for clients in the biotechnology and software industries, such as Ceribell and Tune Therapeutics.

Zack McGahey

Chief Operating Officer

Zack is a leading executive in operations management, specializing in bioprocess engineering and manufacturing management. He has over 20 years of experience leading manufacturing functions for companies across the pharmaceutical, synthetic biology, diagnostics, and automotive industries. Before joining Antheia, Zack was VP of manufacturing and capex project management at Zymergen. He also gained experience managing commercial scale facilities operations for Tesla, where he was responsible for managing 10 million square feet of factory, lab and warehouse space during the Model 3 ramp.

Kristy Hawkins, PhD

Co-Founder & CSO

Kristy has over 20 years of experience in the field of synthetic biology, focusing on yeast metabolic engineering for the production of small molecules. She did the founding work on the benzylisoquinoline alkaloid pathway during her graduate studies and gained valuable industry experience at Amyris and Lygos. Kristy is an expert in tool development, high-throughput screening, and host strain and heterologous pathway engineering.

Christina Smolke, PhD

Co-Founder & CEO

Christina is a pioneer in synthetic biology and metabolic engineering, where she has over 20 years of experience. As Professor of Bioengineering and Chemical Engineering at Stanford University, her laboratory led the breakthrough research to engineer baker’s yeast to produce some of the most complex and valuable medicines known. Under her leadership, Antheia’s synthetic biology platform enables new possibilities for drug discovery and efficient, sustainable, transparent, and on-demand drug manufacturing at scale. Her vision and accomplishments have garnered numerous awards, including the Chan-Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator, NIH Director’s Pioneer Award, Nature’s 10, Novozymes Award for Excellence in Biochemical Engineering, and TR35 Award.

Antheia Secures Second BioMaP-Consortium Project Valued at $12M

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Appropriate regulatory submissions will be prepared and submitted to support Antheia’s customers who need to reference and access necessary process-related information.