Antheia Announces New Funding to Support Domestic Production of Critical Pharmaceutical Ingredients

News provided by

Jul 19, 2024, 10:00 ET

Company awarded government project agreement to onshore key pharmaceutical supply chains, alongside strategic investment from In-Q-Tel and Echo

MENLO PARK, Calif., July 19, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Antheia, the pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturer transforming essential medicine supply chains, today announced $17 million in new funding via a government project agreement through the Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Preparedness Consortium (BioMaP-Consortium), alongside matching support from new strategic investors. The combined funding will support onshoring the production of critical pharmaceutical ingredients to the U.S. and accelerating the company's commercialization strategy. The funding includes a non-dilutive two-year project agreement up to $11 million through the BioMaP Consortium and additional investment from In-Q-Tel, Inc. (IQT), Echo Investment Capital (Echo), and several existing investors, including Viking Global Investors.

"Biotechnology has a critical role to play in U.S. national and economic security," said Dr. Christina Smolke, Antheia CEO and co-founder. "With the support of both the public and private sectors, we can leverage this technology to bolster essential medicine production in the U.S., with an agile, scalable biomanufacturing approach that leapfrogs existing pharmaceutical manufacturing practices."

The BioMaP-Consortium is a multiple-purpose acquisition vehicle supporting the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) and is composed of pharmaceutical, medical, academic, and scientific organizations. This project has been funded in whole or in part with federal funds from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR); Office of Industrial Base Manufacturing and Supply Chain (IBMSC), under OT number #75A50123D00003.

The BioMaP-Consortium aims to meet the U.S. public health preparedness and response requirements by expanding the industrial and manufacturing base for medical countermeasures. As part of the BioMaP-Consortium award, Antheia will demonstrate the domestic production of three critical pharmaceutical ingredients at population scale using advanced biomanufacturing processes.

In addition to the BioMaP-Consortium project agreement, Antheia brought in matching support from new strategic investors – including IQT and Echo – that represent the intersection of innovation, national security, and domestic manufacturing. IQT connects cutting edge innovation from the private sector to the U.S. government and its allies to advance national security in the 21st century. Echo is a multi-strategy investment firm that connects overlooked domestic resources and infrastructure with world-class founders, ideas, and capital to generate exceptional financial and social returns.

"The U.S. is a leader in biomanufacturing, synthetic biology, and computational biology, but there is more we must do to scale these advanced technologies to solve global problems like essential medicine shortages," said Eugene Chiu, Senior Partner, IQT. "We are excited to support Antheia in advancing the U.S. bioeconomy and building resilient pharmaceutical supply chains."

"Antheia's disruptive innovation is dramatically changing the outlook for security and resiliency of our biopharmaceutical supply chains," said Christian Kanady, Founding Partner & CEO, Echo. "We are proud to partner in advancing Antheia's groundbreaking technologies and importantly renewing the domestic bioeconomy in the process."

Today's financing news comes on the heels of significant 2024 momentum, including the company's validated process for its first product , thebaine, and the opportunity to host U.S. Secretary of State, Antony J. Blinken at its labs for a discussion on the importance of a robust domestic bioeconomy. Antheia continues to deliver on its commercial strategy and plans to ship its first orders to customers later this year.

About Antheia
Antheia is the next-generation pharmaceutical ingredient producer transforming essential medicine supply chains to end drug shortages. Using its novel whole-cell engineering approach, Antheia's biomanufacturing platform enables the reconstruction of biosynthetic pathways of unprecedented complexity in yeast cells and the scaling of fermentation processes to commercial levels. This highly flexible approach enables on-demand, agile, and resilient biomanufacturing of critical pharmaceutical ingredients, replacing legacy approaches that cannot support the needs of modern healthcare. For more information, visit www.antheia.bio.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Mission North for Antheia
[email protected]

SOURCE Antheia