USA — Ginkgo Bioworks has entered into a partnership with Boehringer Ingelheim, a German pharmaceutical company, to explore the vast metagenomic sequence database of Ginkgo and identify lead molecules for drug discovery.
With over 3 terabases of sequence data and 2 billion proprietary protein sequences from various microbes, Ginkgo’s database is one of the broadest metagenomics databases in the world.
The partners will work together to rapidly identify new treatments through the use of Ginkgo’s Foundry and Codebase, which will unlock new possibilities in biopharma innovation.
The deal is a lucrative one for Ginkgo, as it will receive upfront research fees and is eligible to receive success-based R&D, regulatory, and commercial milestone payments for a specified number of projects, up to a total of US$406 million.
Additionally, Ginkgo is entitled to royalties on sales of future products. However, the company’s early growth stages have seen a significant net loss, with its most recent quarterly results showing sales of US$77.6 million and a net loss of US$102.4 million.
This partnership is just the latest in a series of pharma partnerships for Ginkgo, which has been gaining traction in the industry as more data from its cell engineering programs have become available.
The company has partnerships with Merck, Novo Nordisk, Roche, Eli Lilly, and Moderna, among others. Based on interest from the pharma and ag-bio industries, Ginkgo is predicted to experience a 21 percent increase in cell engineering revenues in 2023.
Ginkgo has been adding to its assets, recently acquiring StrideBio’s AAV capsid library and discovery platform to strengthen end-to-end capabilities in gene therapy.
The acquisition has turned the company into a “one-stop shop” for gene therapy R&D across capsid, payload, and cell line optimization.
Ginkgo acquired Zymergen for US$300 million, integrating the latter’s core automation and software technologies into its synthetic biology platform.
In addition to the pharmaceutical industry, Ginkgo’s capabilities extend to other areas, such as its partnership with biotech company Optimvia aimed at improving the efficiency in manufacturing biosynthetic heparin, which is used to prevent blood clots in humans.
Boehringer Ingelheim has also been active in forming collaborations recently, including partnering with RetinAI to develop a novel treatment for geographic atrophy and teaming up with 3T Biosciences to focus on next-gen cancer immunotherapies.
Boehringer Ingelheim has upped the ante on innovation recently, as evidenced by its rising ranking on Idea Pharma’s 2023 Index from 27th place to tie Eli Lilly for 6th place.
Its blockbuster drug Jardiance, developed with Eli Lilly, continues to expand indications, while the company also adds new drugs to its portfolio.
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