Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks has been having a banner year and doesn’t show any signs of stopping with its recent string of collaboration announcements.
Boston-based Ginkgo Bioworks has been having a banner year and doesn’t show any signs of stopping with its recent string of collaboration announcements.
The most recent collaboration was announced on Tuesday. In the new partnership, Ginkgo will be helping Tantu, a company developing living biotherapeutic products for gastrointestinal diseases, accelerate the research and development of its therapeutic genes.
“Working with Tantu provides Ginkgo with the opportunity to leverage its expertise in pharmaceuticals to support the development of a potentially transformative therapeutic for the millions struggling with digestive disorders,” said Jason Kelly, CEO and co-founder of Ginkgo Bioworks.
While teamed up, Ginkgo plans to use its automated foundry to accelerate Tantu’s first program and potentially help the company reach clinical proof of concept in patients faster.
“We are excited to partner with a pre-seed company like Tantu with the goal of reducing their time-to-market because we view it as an opportunity to invest in the biotech industry through the startups that are driving forward so much innovation,” Kelly said.
Ginkgo also announced a pair of collaboration agreements last week. On August 30, the company shared that it had signed a multi-program collaboration with taste and well-being company Givaudan. Givaudan will use Ginkgo’s platform to accelerate and enhance its portfolio of ingredients.
“Through this close collaboration, we will be able to help Givaudan transform even the rarest and most complex nature-inspired ingredients into more sustainable products for consumers,” Kelly said at the time of announcement. “We believe that biology has the power to enable better and more sustainable products across many industries, from flavors and fragrances, to pharmaceuticals, to farming.”
The other collaboration deal Ginkgo struck last week was with Cambium Biomaterials. On September 2, the companies announced they would partner to use Ginkgo’s Codebase and high-throughput facility to speed up Cambium’s discovery, development, manufacturing and commercialization of biomaterials. Through the partnership, Ginkgo is expanding its involvement in the biomaterials space.
Some of the other companies Ginkgo is collaborating with include Biogen, Corteva and Aldevron.
In a recent earnings call, the company highlighted its progress so far this year, including its collaborations, a breakthrough in manufacturing mRNA vaccine components and its massive SPAC deal that led to the company landing a spot on the Nasdaq.
“Ginkgo’s business momentum has accelerated in 2021. We’ve signed several impactful new collaborations and are proud to see programs on our platform delivering value to customers,” Kelly said at the time of the earnings call. “We’ve also seen increasing interest from state governments in our biosecurity offering as COVID variants are spreading in local communities and threatening school reopening plans.”
