Sanofi, PATH scale up semisynthetic artemisinin production
Sanofi (Euronext:SAN; NYSE:SNY) and OneWorld Health, the not-for-profit drug development affiliate of the Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH), launched a commercial-scale production line for semisynthetic artemisinin, the main ingredient of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) for malaria. Sanofi said the production line, which is located at its facility in Garessio, Italy, will be able to produce enough artemisinin for around 80-150 million ACT treatments annually. The facility uses photochemistry to synthetically produce artemisinin from artemisinic acid-producing yeast strains from Amyris Inc. (NASDAQ:AMRS).
Amyris, OneWorld and the University of California, Berkeley, have been collaborating since 2004 to develop a low-cost technology platform to produce artemisinin and, along with Sanofi, to develop a commercial-scale alternative manufacturing process to produce a stable supply. ...