Willow Biosciences Inc, a biotechnology company manufacturing ultra-pure, sustainably produced cannabinoids via yeast-based biosynthesis, told shareholders it has successfully scaled up its production titer.
Earlier this year the bio manufacturer completed its first commercial-scale fermentation run of cannabigerol (CBG) through its manufacturing partner’s European facilities. The resulting product was primarily used for customer samples and sent to Cellular Goods PLC (LSE:CBX, FRA:6XS) as a part of a June 2021 supply agreement.
Cellular Goods received its first shipment of CBG in July 2021.
READ: Willow Biosciences ends 2Q with C$40.7M in cash to support full commercialization of proprietary high-purity CBG in 2022
Following the initial run, Willow has since increased its production titer by more than 400%.
According to Willow, it has also “carried out additional fermentation runs yielding tens of kilograms of ultra-pure CBG at >10,000 L fermentation scale.”
Moving ahead, the company continues to make significant titer improvements to its strain, with further production runs planned through the end of the year.
“Since launching CBG, Willow has received inquiries for its acidic precursor, cannabigerolic acid (CBGA), which is not readily available through extraction,” the company said. “Willow is pleased to announce that it has developed a process for production of ultrapure cannabigerolic acid and samples are now available for customer assessment and product development.
CBGA is described as an exciting, rare cannabinoid with distinctive properties and has been shown to act as an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and neuroprotectant in research studies.
Willow plans to use its unique biosynthetic production process in yeast to efficiently produce the acidic and neutral forms of cannabinoids in high purity.
On the corporate side, Willow noted that a claim alleging infringement of Canadian Patent No. 2,770,774 had been served on the company.
“Willow is confident the claim is entirely without merit and intends to vigorously defend it,” the company said.
The patent relates to the aromatic prenyl transferase CsPT1 from cannabis, which Willow attests it does not use in any of its development programs or commercialized processes.
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