Amicogen Obtains Patent for 'Improved Strain' Used in Eco-Friendly Antibiotic Production

Amicogen, a bio-pharmaceutical and healthcare materials specialist company (CEO Park Cheol), announced on the 8th that it has obtained a patent for an improved strain to expand the eco-friendly antibiotic market. This is a domestic patent for a 'new improved strain (project name DX2)' capable of producing the cephalosporin antibiotic intermediate '7-ADCA' using an eco-friendly process.

The newly registered improved 'DX2' strain has a comparative advantage in terms of productivity and purity, and the company plans to secure product competitiveness by registering it in the United States, Japan, India, Europe, China, and other countries, starting with Korea.

This technology is one of the strain development (DX) projects conducted by Amicogen. It is an eco-friendly production method that manufactures 7-ADCA through a one-step enzymatic conversion process and a new technology that replaces the chemical method using penicillin-producing strains. Amicogen had already developed this preceding technology for the first time in the world and completed patent registration in Korea in 2016 and in China in 2023. The newly registered patent is for an improved strain based on the preceding technology.

So far, Amicogen transferred the preceding technology to a Chinese partner in 2020 and succeeded in commercialization. The company receives annual royalties of 2 to 3 billion KRW, and with the growth of the global market and increasing demand for eco-friendly technology, additional sales are expected to increase. Currently, more than 1,200 tons (40% of the global market size) of 7-ADCA are produced using this technology annually. Over 80% of the global demand for 7-ADCA is produced in China, and the market size is estimated to be about 250 billion KRW.

By replacing chemical processes, this technology drastically reduces toxic wastewater and by-products, improves the quality and yield of 7-ADCA, and significantly lowers the manufacturing cost of antibiotics.

Park Cheol, CEO of Amicogen, stated, “Following the successful commercialization of DX2 in 2020 and DX0 in 2023, we have secured a pipeline for the enzymatic synthesis of more than ten cephalosporin Green APIs. Going forward, we will expand our eco-friendly antibiotic business targeting China, the United States, Europe, and Japan through the development of new pharmaceutical enzymes and the DX new strain project in line with the global antibiotic market demand.”