Bota Bio, a global industrial biotechnology company advancing sustainable biomanufacturing, and Medichem, a vertically integrated pharmaceutical company engaged in the process development and manufacture of active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and finished dosage forms (FDF), announced a commercial development collaboration to increase sustainability while reducing the costs of API manufacturing.

Under the terms of the agreement, Bota Bio and Medichem will collaborate on advancing two high-value API programmes. Bota Bio will develop novel enzymes to catalyse efficient, environmentally sustainable production methods that minimise the need for expensive reagents and intermediates. Medichem will be responsible for the development, scale-up, manufacturing, and marketing of the APIs from its facilities in Spain and Malta.

"We are delighted to work with Medichem, a company with more than 50 years of experience innovating API and FDF development, production, and commercialization," said Cheryl Cui, Co-Founder, and CEO, Bota Bio. "Bota Bio's technology platform leverages the power of biology to bring innovative solutions to our customers, enabling sustainable manufacturing of industrial products, including APIs. This project will also highlight Bota Bio and Medichem's commitments to environmental sustainability."

"The pharmaceutical industry increasingly demands sustainable ways to manufacture important active ingredients. Enzymes provide an excellent solution, however, they are not yet broadly used given the low activity and in-process stability of unengineered enzymes. We are pleased to secure this innovative collaboration with Bota Bio, as Bota Bio has assembled an industry-leading enzyme-engineering team with a track record of transformative improvements in pharmaceutical manufacturing," said Jose Luis Rodriguez Miranda, chief operations officer, Medichem. "We believe that the innovative biocatalytic processes enabled by Bota Bio developed enzymes will help to optimize manufacturing while playing an important role in meeting our environmental sustainability goals."