Pharmaceuticals

Pharmaceuticals have contributed to improvements in life expectancy and quality of life of many patients by curing, relieving symptoms, delaying the onset of disease and preventing complications. At present, a large number of valuable pharmaceutical products, including antibiotics, amino acids, vitamins, enzymes, enzyme inhibitors, nucleotides, organic acids, vaccines and polysaccharides, can be produced by synthetic biology technology which has become an important and indispensable technology for pharmaceutical manufacturing. We take the following examples for detailed explanation.

Biosynthetic antibiotics

Antibiotics are powerful medications used to fight infections caused by bacteria. Generally, there are three methods to produce antibiotics, natural fermentation, semi-synthesis, and total synthesis. Except total synthesis, the other two methods involve the biosynthesis technology.

The study of biosynthesis of antibiotics consists of identifying the series of enzymatic reactions by which one or more metabolites (or intermediates in the biosynthesis of these) are converted to the antibiotic molecule. We can classify the biosynthesis of antibiotics in three major categories: i) antibiotics derived from a single primary metabolite; ii) antibiotics derived from two or three different metabolites, which are modified and condensed to give a complex molecule; iii) antibiotics derived from polymerization of several similar metabolites to give a basal structure that can then be further modified by additional enzyme reactions.

Biosynthetic amino acids

Amino acids are natural compounds that can be used both in healthy individuals and after surgery when immune function is weakened. Besides, many medicines today use amino acids as pharmaceutical intermediates.

Except for extraction from protein-hydrolysates and chemical synthesis, amino acids can be produced through microbial processes (enzymatic synthesis and fermentation). Through the enzymatic synthesis, we can get optically pure D and L-amino acids with very few amounts of by-products. And the fermentation process is becoming one of the most promising processes for amino acids commercial production because of the new genetic engineering tools applied to maximize yield, specificity and productivity of the target compounds.

Biosynthetic vitamins

Vitamins are a group of substances that are needed for normal cell function, growth, and development. Vitamins are widely used in the pharmaceutical industry. For example, Vitamin E has also been shown to delay the onset of Alzheimer's disease and reduce the risk of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

The methods of producing vitamins are based either on chemical synthesis or fermentative production. Compared with traditional chemical synthesis methods, the fermentative production of vitamins using bacteria, yeasts or microalgae has many advantages. Vitamins manufactured by biological methods can be more suitable for both internal and external applications from the aspects of safety, biological activity, absorption rate, etc.

Alfa Chemistry is a professional supplier of biosynthetic chemicals which can be used in pharmaceuticals. And we are pleased to work together with our customer to develop the specifically required products. For high quality products, professional technical service, use suggestion and latest industry news, please feel free to contact us.

Our products and services are for research use only.