Pharmaceutical research start-up BeneLein Technologies has opened up shop at the University City Science Center's Port business incubator in West Philadelphia. With backing from a global top 10 pharmaceutical company, BeneLein aims to grow, rather than chemically synthesize, the generic version of a widely used antibiotic. Think of it as the craft brewery version of pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Historically, antibiotics were grown, not synthesized. Penicillin can be produced by any kid with a slice of bread and a bit of science know-how, but these days, the great majority of antibiotics in the marketplace are created by chemists in a lab, using solvents and other environmentally volatile ingredients.
BeneLein's unique bioprocessing methods could transform the way and place that pharmaceutical products are manufactured. Rather than outsourcing to overseas concerns in India and China, the biologically based antibiotic would be produced in Europe and the United States at a competitive cost, with a markedly lower environmental impact, as well as increased security of supply. Benelein principal Doug Leinen, a physicist with an MBA, says partner Jorn Benedictus came up with the idea to get a particular microbe trained to make an antibiotic, and Leinen was hooked by the concept. This process, known as industrial or white biotechnology, is already being applied to many kinds of fine chemical manufacturing, including plastics and ethanol.
At the Science Center, BeneLein plans to train their proprietary microbe to make a large volume of antibiotic material. At that point, says Leinen, "We turn the technology over to the pharmaceutical company. They scale it up, get it approved by regulatory agencies, put in final form and sell it." Like a craft brewery, the pharmaceutical puts the microbe in massive fermentation vats, and on a diet of sugar and carbohydrates, the microbe produces big quantities of the chemical. The byproducts of the process are entirely organic as well, and can be released into any septic system.
BeneLein moved into the Science Center to take advantage of the turnkey operation, according to Leinen. "We were a virtual company, partnered with a lab in Finland, but we wanted to have our own facility so we could control the process, expand and grow." Benelin's ten year goal is an annual revenue of $200 million, and Leinen estimates the global market for these products at around two billion dollars.