BOSTON and CINCINNATI, Jan. 6, 2022 /PRNewswire/
-- Optimvia, a biotechnology company specializing in
engineering enzymes and their cofactors to synthesize complex
therapeutic molecules, and Ginkgo Bioworks (NYSE: DNA), the leading
horizontal platform for cell programming, today announced a
partnership to improve the manufacturing efficiency of biosynthetic
heparin, an essential medicine currently produced from industrial
animal agriculture. Under the partnership, Optimvia seeks to
leverage Ginkgo's cell and enzyme engineering platform, as well as
its fermentation process development expertise, to rapidly improve
the performance of Optimvia's biosynthetic heparin manufacturing
technology.
Ginkgo serves customers across industries seeking to develop new
and better products using biotechnology, including partnerships
that aim to improve manufacturing processes and strengthen supply
chains of key medicines. Heparin is a life-saving drug that
prevents blood clots and is classified as an essential medicine by
the World Health Organization; producing non-animal derived heparin
is intended to be the proof of principle for Optimvia's platform
technology for the synthesis of sulfated glycans. Enabling
enzymatic manufacturing could create supply chain diversity and
reduce or eliminate the need for high volume extraction of heparin
from porcine intestines.
"The goal of producing biosynthetic heparin is similar to
Genentech's famous breakthrough of creating insulin through
recombinant cell-based methods as opposed to relying on extraction
from pig pancreas," said Keith
Kleeman, CEO, Optimvia. "We believe that combining
Optimvia's novel technology and Ginkgo's capabilities will enable
commercially viable, cost effective and safe biosynthetic heparin
that could eliminate the world's dependence on livestock sourced
heparin entirely."
"Ginkgo's platform helps emerging startups develop and optimize
their products and reach commercial scale," said Jason Kelly, CEO, Ginkgo Bioworks. "We're
pleased to welcome Optimvia as the newest member in our ecosystem.
We believe scalable synthetic heparin could introduce much needed
resiliency to the drug supply chain, improve access to this
essential medicine, and reduce our dependence on industrial animal
agriculture."
About Optimvia
Optimvia is a biotechnology company leveraging its ADEPT™ platform
to engineer enzymes, enzyme systems and co-factors to create new
faster, cheaper and safer supply chains for critical, at risk
therapeutic products. Biosynthetic heparin is the first
commercial candidate Optimvia has developed using its ADEPT™
platform. For more information, please visit
www.optimvia.com.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo is building a platform to
enable customers to program cells as easily as we can program
computers. The company's platform is enabling biotechnology
applications across diverse markets, from food and agriculture to
industrial chemicals to pharmaceuticals. Ginkgo has also actively
supported a number of COVID-19 response efforts, including K-12
pooled testing, vaccine manufacturing optimization and therapeutics
discovery. For more information, visit www.ginkgobioworks.com.
Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including
statements regarding the potential success of the partnership and
Ginkgo's cell programming platform. These forward-looking
statements generally are identified by the words "believe,"
"project," "potential," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate,"
"intend," "strategy," "future," "opportunity," "plan," "may,"
"should," "will," "would," "will be," "will continue," "will likely
result," and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are
predictions, projections and other statements about future events
that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a
result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could
cause actual future events to differ materially from the
forward-looking statements in this document, including but not
limited to: (i) the effect of the business combination with Soaring
Eagle Acquisition Corp. ("Soaring Eagle") on Ginkgo's business
relationships, performance, and business generally, (ii) risks that
the business combination disrupts current plans of Ginkgo and
potential difficulties in Ginkgo's employee retention, (iii) the
outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against
Ginkgo related to its business combination with Soaring Eagle, (iv)
volatility in the price of Ginkgo's securities now that it is a
public company due to a variety of factors, including changes in
the competitive and highly regulated industries in which Ginkgo
plans to operate, variations in performance across competitors,
changes in laws and regulations affecting Ginkgo's business and
changes in the combined capital structure, (v) the ability to
implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after
the completion of the business combination, and identify and
realize additional opportunities, and (vi) the risk of downturns in
demand for products using synthetic biology. The foregoing list of
factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the
foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described
in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's quarterly report on Form
10-Q filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the
"SEC") on November 15, 2021 and other
documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These
filings identify and address other important risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.
Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking
statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to
update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does
not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.
OPTIMVIA MEDIA CONTACT:
info@optimvia.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
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SOURCE Ginkgo Bioworks