The following is a comprehensive up to the minute list of public and private companies producing cannabinoids through biosynthesis.
Technical Notes: Most cannabis biosynthesis occurs through a specific host organism – bacteria, yeast, or algae. The host organism must be specifically engineered to produce cannabinoids. Each company is therefore creating a custom host organism, which can be patentable. The host organism is incredibly important to the overall process of cannabis biosynthesis because it determines how much engineering needs to occur to create a fully functioning synthesis factory.
Why Biosynthesis?
- Cost Savings: Some companies have reported anticipated production of pure cannabinoids at $1000/kg (COGS) or 3-5x cheaper than outdoor growing.
- Continuous Production Cycle: Compared to a 3-4 month grow cycle through traditional agricultural methods.
- Streamlined Purification: A one step process for isolating specific cannabinoids relative to plant-grow-harvest-extract-purify agricultural methods.
- Quality Control and Purity: Ready to meet standards demanded by CPG and Pharma companies.
- Ability to Synthesize Minor Cannabinoids: Currently it’s not economically feasible to extract from plant sources and develop into drug candidates.
PUBLIC
Amyris (USA): Closed a $300 million deal (March 2019) to develop, license, and commercialize synthetic cannabinoids in partnership with LAVVAN. Amyris will first focus on CBD derived from fermentation in yeast.
Partnership Highlights: LAVVAN will make milestone payments in $10 million increments to Amyris totaling an aggregate of $300 million. LAVVAN will be responsible for the global manufacturing and commercialization of the cannabinoids.
Company Profile
Cronos Group (CANADA): Cronos and Ginkgo Bioworks entered into a partnership arrangement in September 2018 to pursue research and development of major (THC & CBD) and minor cannabinoid biosynthesis in yeast. Cronos Group will have the exclusive rights to use and commercialize the key patented intellectual property related to the production of the target cannabinoids globally.
\ Novel Approach: Ginkgo uses scalable, automated processes to work through genetic and biochemical tests in thousands, if not millions, of yeast host cells, incrementally optimizing the cellular machinery along the way. This iterative process is designed to generate a proprietary set of yeast cells that each efficiently manufacture a specific cannabinoid of interest.
\ Cronos Goal: Incorporate these specific cannabinoids into high-value consumer goods.
\ Partnership Highlights: The partnership is based on production milestones; assuming all milestones are met, the aggregate value will be US$100 million. Cronos Group will issue up to approximately 14.7 million common shares in the aggregate, in accordance with the milestone allocations at a share price of US$6.81.
💲 CRON (NASDAQ)
Company Profile
InMed Pharmaceuticals (CANADA): Developing a proprietary cannabinoid bio-synthetic manufacturing platform using E.coli bacteria as the host organism. The company is focused on the clinical development of proprietary cannabinoid formulations for the treatment of epidermolysis bullosa, glaucoma, and orofacial pain.
💲 IMLFF (OTCMKTS)
Company Profile
Intrexon (USA): In September 2018, XON announced that it had engineered a proprietary strain of yeast to use as a host for the biosynthesis of cannabinoids. As a separate project in the cannabis space, XON announced in January 2019 a partnership with B.C.-based Next Green Wave Holdings to license XON’s Boticelli next-generation plant propagation platform for cannabis production. The Botticelli platform is a tissue culture technology that does not use yeast or bacteria fermentation, and rather regenerates plant tissue in a controlled environment similar to the tissue engineering processes used to make lab grown meat.
💲 XON (NASDAQ)
Company Profile
Next Green Wave (CANADA): In March 2019, Next Green Wave began the optimization of the strategic licensing agreement with Intrexon (see above) for the use of XON’s Botticelli™ next generation plant propagation platform to enable rapid production of Next Green Wave’s proprietary cannabis cultivars for the California market.
💲 NXGWF (OTCQX)
Company Profile
Organigram (CANADA): Invested $10M into Hyasynth Biologicals (listed below) to scale up commercial production of biosynthetic cannabinoids synthesized in yeast. Organigram and Hyasynth have entered into an agreement that allows Organigram to purchase a significant quantity of cannabinoids produced by Hyasynth.
💲 OGI (NASDAQ)
Company Profile
PRIVATE
BayMedica (USA): Developing a proprietary cannabinoid biosynthetic manufacturing platform using yeast strains. The company is looking to produce natural pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids, including CBC, CBD and CBG as well as novel cannabinoid analogs for life science, pharmaceutical, nutraceutical, cosmetic and animal health applications.
Company Profile
Cellibre (USA): The Cellibre team has identified a set of host organisms (beyond the standard bacteria, yeast and algae) that are well suited to produce cannabinoids as part of their innate infrastructure. The company aims to be a contract manufacturer and supplier to not just cannabis companies, but also to the much larger CPG and Pharma industries.
Company Profile
Demetrix (USA): Demetrix uses synthetic biology to engineer yeast strains to produce cannabinoids and nutraceuticals. The company’s co-founder, Dr. Jay Keasling, is a pioneer in biotechnology and microbial engineering at UC Berkeley.
💲 15 million seed funding led by Horizon Ventures.
Company Profile
Farmako (GERMANY): Farmako specializes in the biosynthetic production of CBD in a genetically engineered tequila bacterium. The bacterium trademarked Zymomonas cannabinoidis, creates a cannabinoid factory that the company argues is faster and cheaper than synthesizing in yeast because it can produce cannabinoids for 900 hours without interruption where the yeast production does not happen continuously. In April 2019, Farmako received a three year supply contract from Zenabis for 36,000 kilograms of CBD.
🔗https://www.farmako.de/
Ginkgo Bioworks (USA): Working in partnership with CRON (see above). Ginkgo uses scalable automated processes to work through genetic and biochemical tests in thousands, if not millions, of host cells, incrementally optimizing the cellular machinery along the way. This iterative process is designed to generate a proprietary set of yeast cells that each efficiently manufacture a specific cannabinoid of interest.
Company Profile
Hyasynth Biologicals (CANADA): Developing patent-pending enzymes, yeast cells and processes to biosynthesize cannabinoids in genetically engineered yeast. Canadian licensed cannabis producer, Organigram (OGI) invested $10M into the company to scale up commercial production. Organigram and Hyasynth have entered into an agreement that allows Organigram to purchase a significant quantity of cannabinoids produced by Hyasynth.
Company Profile
Librede (USA): Biosynthetic production of cannabinoids in engineered yeast. The company claims to have a platform to synthesize a variety of major and minor cannabinoids substituting different enzymes into the yeast.
Company Profile
Renew Biopharma (USA): Producing proprietary and novel cannabinoids in engineered microalgae host cells for pharmaceutical applications. Renew is developing approaches to modify natural cannabinoids to improve therapeutic efficacy.
Company Profile
Teewinot Life Sciences (USA): The company has been working on the biosynthetic production of pharmaceutical-grade cannabinoids since 2016. Teewinot has a robust patent portfolio that includes methods for manufacturing authentic cannabinoids through biosynthesis.
Company Profile
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