Contact Us
Contact Us

Transforming
pharmaceutical supply chains

Transforming
pharmaceutical supply chains

people lack access to basic medicines
1999999969

Everyone deserves access to life-saving medicines

Current pharmaceutical manufacturing approaches often result in inequitable access to essential medicines. The World Health Organization estimates over two billion people worldwide lack access to basic medicines.

With synthetic biology, we can build more effective solutions to sustainably and responsibly produce medicines and drive more equitable health outcomes around the world.

Our true north

We envision a world where patient care and health equity is never jeopardized by global supply chain vulnerabilities. Our mission is to transform pharmaceutical supply chains, so that drug shortages can become a problem of the past and essential medicines are readily available to those who need them.

Our true north

We envision a world where patient care and health equity is never jeopardized by global supply chain vulnerabilities. Our mission is to transform pharmaceutical supply chains, so that drug shortages can become a problem of the past and essential medicines are readily available to those who need them.

Our story

Antheia was founded in 2015 out of the Smolke Lab at Stanford University on the premise that yeast could be programmed to efficiently produce complex pharmaceutical ingredients.
Founders Dr. Christina Smolke, CEO and Dr. Kristy Hawkins, CSO collaborated to push the boundaries of synthetic biology, with the steadfast belief this technology and this company will change the world.

  • 2008

    Smolke and Hawkins publish in Nature Chemical Biology on the production of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in yeast.

  • 2015

    Antheia incorporates and raises Seed financing round. The Smolke Lab also publishes in Science, demonstrating the complete biosynthesis of medical opiates in yeast.

  • 2016

    Antheia receives its first National Science Foundation grant.

  • 2017

    Antheia raises Series A financing and is awarded two grants from the National Institute of Health.

  • 2018

    Antheia receives the Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant and a second National Science Foundation grant.

  • 2020

    The Smolke Lab publishes in Nature, demonstrating the biosynthesis of medicinal tropane alkaloids in yeast.

  • 2021

    Antheia raises Series B financing.

  • 2023

    Antheia brings its early products to manufacturing scale and continues to develop its pipeline of KSMs and APIs for essential medicines.

Our guiding principles

Antheia strives to be a leader in transparent and transformative essential medicine production. We are guided by a set of value-based beliefs that serve as ethical imperatives in all that we do.

Our guiding principles

Antheia strives to be a leader in transparent and transformative essential medicine production.
We are guided by a set of value-based beliefs that serve as ethical imperatives in all that we do.

Access to medicine

Medicines that reduce suffering are a human right, not a privilege – including but not limited to medicines used to alleviate suffering in palliative care, neurological diseases, and cancer treatment.

Safety & quality

Science and technology will advance pharmaceutical manufacturing to new heights, while ensuring the industry continues to meet the highest levels of excellence across safety, quality, and regulatory.

Sustainability

Improving planetary health requires a paradigm shift in our global supply chains. We’re leading a change in medicine production that moves away from legacy agricultural sources that have cascading environmental impacts.

Equity

Reducing barriers to essential medicines allows patients to reach their full health potential. We aim to advance health equity through access, availability, and affordability to essential medicines.

Resilience

Predictable, responsive, and sustainable supply chains are the future of manufacturing and will support the production of nature-inspired solutions to overcome current pharmaceutical challenges.

Transparency

Visibility and traceability within supply chains should be standard practice to measure the impact of a medicine’s journey from lab to patient. We aim to add transparency to the manufacturing process for KSMs and APIs.

Our leadership team

Solving some of the toughest challenges in pharmaceutical manufacturing takes a special team. Antheia’s leadership comprises bright minds and tenacious curiosity, coalesced around a shared vision for the future. We are passionate and relentless in our mission to transform pharmaceutical supply chains.

Board of directors

John Nicols

Patrick Yang, PhD​

Ram Shriram

Kristy Hawkins, PhD

Christina Smolke, PhD

Board of Directors

  • Josh Nicols Antheia Board Member description 4

    John Nicols

  • Patrick Yang, PhD Antheia Board Member description 4

    Patrick Yang, PhD

  • Ram Shriram Antheia Board Member description 4

    Ram Shriram

  • Josh Nicols Antheia Board Member description 4

    Kristy Hawkins, PhD

  • Christina Smolke, PhD Antheia Board Member description 4

    Christina Smolke, PhD

Global Javascript Test

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Founders Dr. Christina Smolke, CEO and Dr. Kristy Hawkins, CSO collaborated to push the boundaries of synthetic biology, with the steadfast belief this technology and this company will change the world.

  • 2008

    Smolke and Hawkins publish in Nature Chemical Biology on the production of benzylisoquinoline alkaloids in yeast.

  • 2015

    Antheia incorporates and raises Seed financing round. The Smolke Lab also publishes in Science, demonstrating the complete biosynthesis of medical opiates in yeast.

  • 2016

    Antheia receives its first National Science Foundation grant.

  • 2017

    Antheia raises Series A financing and is awarded two grants from the National Institute of Health.

  • 2018

    Antheia receives the Phase II Small Business Innovation Research grant and a second National Science Foundation grant.

  • 2020

    Smolke Lab publishes in Nature, demonstrating the biosynthesis of medicinal tropane alkaloids in yeast.

  • 2021

    Antheia raises Series B financing.

  • 2023

    Antheia brings its early products to manufacturing scale and continues to develop its pipeline of KSMs and APIs for essential medicines.

Ready to transform pharma?

We are growing fast and looking for talented individuals to be part of our journey.

Join Us

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.