PR Newswire | October 15, 1999
NEW YORK - Researchers hold out a lot of hope for biotechnology as a low-cost, precise, and minimally polluting route to specialty chemicals. But can it really deliver the goods? A new report, "Advances In Biotechnology For The Manufacture Of Commodity & Specialty Chemicals" from Hewin International, a unit of John Wiley & Sons, Inc., suggests that it can, and soon will.
To biotech pioneers, low-value, high-volume commodity chemicals and feedstocks like ethanol, butanol, acetone, acetic acid, and glycerol are assuming lesser importance, while fine, specialty chemicals are, in comparison, seeing a research boom. The relatively low price of petroleum feedstocks is a major contributory factor here, though at least two exceptions are the biocatalytic manufacture of acrylamide and the proposed fermentative route to 1,3-propanediol (PDO), a precursor of high-performance polyesters and engineering polymers.
The list of promising candidates for biotech-based processes is impressive: it includes specialty chemicals such as organic acids (citric, lactic, itaconic, gluconic, etc.); amino acids (such as L-glutamic acid, L-lysine, and L-tryptophan); nucleosides, nucleotides and related compounds, enzymes (amylases, lipases, proteases, glucose isomerase, L-asparaginases, rennin, pectinases, lactases, penicillin acylases); vitamins (B12, riboflavin, B-carotene); ergot alkaloids; extracellular polysaccharides (mainly xanthan gum) and other biopolymers; the products of microbial transformations (steroids, sterols, nonsteroid compounds, antibiotics, pesticides, etc.); antibiotics (B-lactam, amino and peptide, carbohydrate, macrocyclic lactone, tetracyclines and anthracyclines, nucleoside, aromatic, and others commercially produced); and miscellaneous fermentation products (gibberellins, zearalenone, triglycerides, fatty acids, enzyme inhibitors, microbial insecticides, cyclosporin A, biochips, and flavoring compounds).
Add to that list such promising drugs as vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, therapeutic enzymes, insulin, interferons, human growth hormone, lymphokines, and other regulating compounds, plus prospective anticancer agents, and you can see there's a quiet revolution underway.
"Advances in Biotechnology" discusses the activities of key US and European players, including Amgen, Genentech, Chiron, British Biotech, Biogen, Biocompatibles International, Scotia Holdings, Celltech Group, Genzyme, and Quiagen, along with the research efforts of 80 other companies and laboratories.
Is there a downside? Possibly. The report also highlights emerging 'scare' issues such as proposed bans on antibiotics in animal feed and public concern about genetically modified crops.
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