Synbio alliance strengthens EU corticosteroid supply chain

A new €140m-funded corporate alliance in industrial biotechnology aims to reduce the EU’s reliance on corticosteroid supplies from Asia. Currently, around 80% of these essential medicines, used to treat inflammation, autoimmune disorders and allergies, come from Indian and Chinese production.

Approximately €140m is provided by the French development bank Bpifrance to the biotech company Abolis Biotechnologies SAS and the pharmaceutical API manufacturer EUROAPI SA. The funds from IPCEI Med4Cure will support the development and optimisation of a microbiological manufacturing process for large-scale production of corticosteroid derivatives.

AI-assisted enzyme optimisation for synbio production

Abolis Biotechnologies contributes its expertise in synthetic biology (SynBio) to optimise a microbial production strain and process. The approach combines chemistry, microbiology, automation, and AI-assisted enzyme optimisation. The objective is to secure the European corticosteroid supply chain.

Founded in 2014, the SynBio specialist will first remodel the strain’s metabolism using metabolic engineering. Side pathways will be cut and metabolic flux optimised. Additionally, the activation energy of the enzymes and enzyme cascades involved will be lowered through rational design, directed evolution, substrate pocket optimisation, and subsequent robotic screening. The process uses automated parallelised process development to determine and scale the optimal production conditions.

Production distributed across European sites

The medicines will be manufactured at EuroAPI sites in St-Aubin-lès-Elbeuf (Normandy) and Vertolaye (Auvergne). Abolis Biotechnologies will receive four-year funding from Bpifrance and EuroAPI to develop the process.