Economic Aspects of Industrial Biotechnology.

Industrial biotechnology is a key tool in the switch from a petro-based to a bio-based economy. For biotechnological processes to compete competitively in cost with chemical synthesis, the best available state-of-the-art technologies are necessary. In the last few years, industrial biotechnology has undergone fast technological development, resulting in a high number of basic technologies emanating from research efforts at universities and research institutions. Academic spin-offs have great importance in technological development because of their innovation from academic backgrounds. Technology transfer through spin-offs can help significantly in translating research at European universities and research institutions into commercial applications. More business oriented and experienced people, similar to founding or business angels, should join such new ventures to achieve successful realization of technology transfer.

Bacterial whole-cell biocatalysts by surface display of enzymes: toward industrial application.

Despite the first report on the bacterial display of a recombinant peptide appeared almost 30 years ago, industrial application of cells with surface-displayed enzymes is still limited. To display an enzyme on the surface of a living cell bears several advantages. First of all, neither the substrate nor the product of the enzymatic reaction needs to cross a membrane barrier. Second, the enzyme being linked to the cell can be separated from the reaction mixture and hence the product by simple centrifugation. Transfer to a new substrate preparation results in multiple cycles of enzymatic conversion. Finally, the anchoring in a matrix, in this case, the cell envelope stabilizes the enzyme and makes it less accessible to proteolytic degradation and material adsorption resulting in continuous higher activities. These advantages in common need to balance some disadvantages before this application can be taken into account for industrial processes, e.g., the exclusion of the enzyme from the cellular metabolome and hence from redox factors or other co-factors that need to be supplied. Therefore, this digest describes the different systems in Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria that have been used for the surface display of enzymes so far and focuses on examples among these which are suitable for industrial purposes or for the production of valuable resources, not least in order to encourage a broader application of whole-cell biocatalysts with surface-displayed enzymes.

The nature of outsourced preclinical research--the example of chemical synthesis.

The possibility to buy standardized external services or even new and innovative methods within drug discovery has increased dramatically during the last decades. Service providers are able to provide timely and efficient solutions to any given problem within preclinical research. The outsourcing behavior depends on the specific company type. Generally, the outsourcing level of emerging pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies is much higher than established companies due to low or missing internal resources. Whereas the "make-or-buy" decisions of large and fully integrated pharmaceutical companies are mainly competency driven, those of mid-size and small pharmaceutical, as well as biotech companies show a specific combination of cost/capacity and competency. The three different cooperation models "price competition", "project selection," and "strategic partnership" were identified. For all types of companies, the cooperation model of "strategic partnership" offers access to high-level expertise while reducing fixed costs and complexity. This was shown using chemical synthesis as an example but is also true for other areas of preclinical research.

Outsourcing chemical synthesis in the drug discovery process.

The positive effects of outsourcing chemical synthesis are enhanced if the provider offers, as the strategic partner, unique expertise and complements the existing internal competencies of pharmaceutical companies. The emerging cooperation model of leased competence offers additional access to high-level specialist knowledge: external service providers are temporarily integrated into internal R&D teams and can support R&D projects flexibly and quickly. Practice examples show that this cooperation model supports the efficient realization of milestones and, in the long-term, helps to build up a high internal competence level, especially in small pharmaceutical companies.