GLP-1 drugs could one day outsell iPhones, but there is not enough biomanufacturing capacity to make them. For solutions, we should look away from the factory.
The most expensive part of manufacturing biologic drugs is usually not the actual biomolecule production, but rather the separation and purification. Thus, while growing drugs in farm plants may seem attractive, yeast-based fermentation is much more economical. And cell-free systems may be even better than yeast, so I'm excited to see how this area develops over the next few years.
Another thought: for certain kinds of drugs produced in farm plants, it might be possible to just have the patient eat the plant, skipping the purification process entirely. However, this would only be possible for drugs that are active when taken orally (which excludes most proteins, as these are degraded by the digestive system).
I just wanted to say that I really enjoy both of your writing and pieces. As someone without a scientific or engineering background, you really find a nice balance when explaining concepts around biomanufacturing and engineering biology.
First and foremost, I want to commend the author for noting the tremendous ethical shortcomings of egg production. He understood pointing this out wouldn't help his argument, and doing so is all the more ennobling.
Second, a huge drawback to the egg-strategy is the paper cited a yield determined before any purification!! I imagine if you looked at pre-purification yields from crude S cerevisiae lysate you'd get incredibly high numbers as well, and the protein density of egg whites vastly exceeds that of yeast cells. This could make attaining a pure product even more difficult. I don't think the comparison is totally fair.
Enjoyed reading this. It made me (naively) think, if one day we had a little bit of GLP-1s engineered in our rice, potatoes, wheat etc, would we solve the obesity crisis?
One piece I'm missing: why can't semaglutide be made with peptide synthesis and organic synthesis? Can't the amino acid sections of the drug can be made with solid phase peptide synthesis?
I would be interested to hear if Nico has any thoughts on a company called Plant Health Care that use bioreactors to manufacture peptides to use as plant stimulants.
The most expensive part of manufacturing biologic drugs is usually not the actual biomolecule production, but rather the separation and purification. Thus, while growing drugs in farm plants may seem attractive, yeast-based fermentation is much more economical. And cell-free systems may be even better than yeast, so I'm excited to see how this area develops over the next few years.
Another thought: for certain kinds of drugs produced in farm plants, it might be possible to just have the patient eat the plant, skipping the purification process entirely. However, this would only be possible for drugs that are active when taken orally (which excludes most proteins, as these are degraded by the digestive system).
I just wanted to say that I really enjoy both of your writing and pieces. As someone without a scientific or engineering background, you really find a nice balance when explaining concepts around biomanufacturing and engineering biology.
This a fascinating topic. I'd love to hear more discussions about alternative production platforms.
First and foremost, I want to commend the author for noting the tremendous ethical shortcomings of egg production. He understood pointing this out wouldn't help his argument, and doing so is all the more ennobling.
Second, a huge drawback to the egg-strategy is the paper cited a yield determined before any purification!! I imagine if you looked at pre-purification yields from crude S cerevisiae lysate you'd get incredibly high numbers as well, and the protein density of egg whites vastly exceeds that of yeast cells. This could make attaining a pure product even more difficult. I don't think the comparison is totally fair.
Enjoyed reading this. It made me (naively) think, if one day we had a little bit of GLP-1s engineered in our rice, potatoes, wheat etc, would we solve the obesity crisis?
For edible drugs, I also wonder how the dose could be controlled. Does that mean controlling gene expression, fruit growth? Idk
One piece I'm missing: why can't semaglutide be made with peptide synthesis and organic synthesis? Can't the amino acid sections of the drug can be made with solid phase peptide synthesis?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peptide_synthesis
This is so interesting. I did my MSc on cell-free expression and it would be fascinating to see it implemented on a large scale.
I would be interested to hear if Nico has any thoughts on a company called Plant Health Care that use bioreactors to manufacture peptides to use as plant stimulants.
https://www.planthealthcare.com/new-technology