Business Concentrates PHARMACEUTICALS
Zymergen raises cash for designer microbes
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Bay Area start-up gets $400 million to add custom software, lab automation Zymergen, an automation-focused microbe-engineering start-up, has raised $400 million in its third round of funding from SoftBank Vision Fund, Goldman Sachs, Hanwha Asset Management, and other investors.
Zymergen has invested in equipment such as this liquidhandling robot.
Founded in 2013 and based in Emeryville, California, Zymergen has now raised $574 million for its microbe-engineering platform—a large amount for technology that has yet to see commensurate commercial success. The company serves corporate customers that make products via industrial biotechnology. It uses synthetic biology to design fermentation organisms—bacteria, yeasts, and fungi—that perform well in
FOOD INGREDIENTS
Just in time to inspire those whose New Year’s resolution is to eat a planet-friendly diet, Aleph Farms has unveiled what it calls the world’s first lab-made meat that is structured like steak. The Israel-based start-up cultured cells from a cow to create a minute steak with the 3-D structure of beef muscle. Aleph Farms has not disclosed a timeline for commercializing the product.
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C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | JANUARY 7, 2019
large manufacturing facilities. Zymergen’s customers make ingredients used in agriculture, consumer goods, food, fragrances, and personal care. For more than a decade, start-ups have promised that microbes can manufacture commercially important chemicals from sugar. But most such firms were brought down by long R&D timelines, expensive manufacturing efforts, and competition from cheap petrochemicals. Zymergen focuses on making high-performance microbes rather than downstream products. It has invested in custom software, lab robots, and machine-learning algorithms for high-throughput experimentation and analysis. Rather than work on one microbe or chemical at a time, it pursues thousands of experiments in parallel. The company is mum on who its customers are but says it gets paid based on the value its improved microbes create. Last year, Zymergen acquired Radiant Genomics, a functional metagenomics research firm. Access to genome libraries will help Zymergen work on its own discovery projects. One example is a bioinspired repellent for mosquitoes and ticks. Zymergen will need to seek new markets to support the large investment it has raised, points out Gihan Hewage, an analyst at Lux Research. “The current model will not justify all of the valuation,” he warns.—MELODY BOMGARDNER
Pfizer and GSK will combine OTC businesses Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline plan to merge their consumer health product divisions into a joint venture in which GSK will hold a 68% stake. Continuing a shuffling of over-thecounter (OTC) drug businesses between big drug companies, the deal will effectively merge Pfizer’s consumer health business with GSK’s, after which GSK will operate as two separate companies. With combined sales of $12.7 billion in 2017, the new venture will be the world’s largest consumer health business, with leading positions in categories including pain relief and vitamin and mineral supplements. Brian McNamara, currently head of GSK’s consumer health care business, will be CEO of the new joint venture. The announcement follows GSK’s acquisition of Novartis’s stake in their consumer health venture, a deal that transpired in April 2018 a week after GSK dropped out of the bidding for Pfizer’s consumer health care business. More recently, the company acquired the cancer drug firm Tesaro for $5.1 billion. GSK CEO Emma Walmsley says the deal with Pfizer will advance her firm’s current strategy of prioritizing certain R&D programs. Albert Bourla, chief operating officer and incoming CEO at Pfizer, says the combined OTC business “will be more sustainable and broader in scope than either company individually.” Large drug companies are split in their current take on OTC operations. Merck KGaA sold its consumer health business to Procter & Gamble earlier this year for $4.2 billion. Johnson & Johnson, with brands such as Tylenol and Benadryl, remains an OTC stalwart, and Sanofi has made significant OTC acquisitions, including Chattem in 2010 and Boehringer Ingelheim’s operation in 2014.—RICK MULLIN
CR E D I T: ZYM ERGE N ( RO BOT ) ; A L EP H FA R M S ( ST EA K )
BIOBASED CHEMICALS
