Duckweed makes Protein to alpha-Interferon?

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Friday, December 14, 2001 Sunny, 49癋 *************** Company pins hopes on the science of duckweed David Ranii Scripps Howard News Service PITTSBORO, N.C. - Biolex is adding a whole new layer of meaning to the term "manufacturing plant." The company is working to harness the reproductive abilities of duckweed, a common aquatic plant, to develop a faster and cheaper way to make biotechnology medicines derived from protein. Only about 30 protein-based drugs are available - including insulin, human growth hormone and alpha-interferon, a treatment for hepatitis and cancer - but another 700 are in development. Although nowhere near that amount will actually make it to market, the industry is nonetheless facing a major shortfall in manufacturing capacity. The upcoming crunch has spurred privately held Biolex, as well as other companies, to focus on developing new technologies that can provide a significant boost in capacity at a lower cost. The price tag for increasing capacity using the prevailing technology, according to the trade publication In Vivo, could be as much as $5 billion to $6 billion in the next six or seven years. "If this can pay off, we can revolutionize the protein-production process," said David Spencer, vice president of research and development and chief operating officer. "It's an exciting company," said Philip Tracy, former chief executive officer of Burroughs Wellcome and a member of Biolex's board of directors. "The company has made significant progress over the last couple of years." Tracy also is a part-time venture partner at Intersouth Partners, an investor in Biolex. Founded in 1997, Pittsboro-based Biolex has been operating in low-profile, research mode. But it has racked up numerous milestones on its way to commercializing the technology it licensed from North Carolina State University. They include: - Attracting Jan Turek as CEO in July. Turek previously directed Bayer's worldwide biological products business, which has 3,000 employees and annual revenue of more than $1 billion. - Landing a total of $9.1 million in venture capital in three rounds of financing. The company is seeking an additional $20 million in financing. - Doubling in size from 20 workers a year ago to 42 today. Next year's target: growing to 65 employees. - Demonstrating the feasibility of its technology by producing milligrams' worth of alpha-interferon at a fraction of the cost of current production methods. "It doesn't sound like much, but it is a lot for biotech purposes," Spencer said. Although it is a popular medicine, the annual worldwide supply of alpha interferon is less than 2 kilograms, according to Turek. Biolex also has shown the versatility of its technology by expressing a total of nine proteins to date. Expressing proteins essentially involves creating their messenger, RNA, which is the first crucial step in manufacturing. Essentially, Biolex uses genetic engineering - the insertion of new genes - to convert duckweed into a protein-reproduction system. (Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service,http://www.shns.com) December 14, 2001