Synthetic biology breakthrough leads to cheaper statin production

University of Manchester researchers, together with industrial partner, Dutch biotech company DSM (DSM: NA), have developed a single-step fermentative method for the production of leading cholesterol-lowering drug, pravastatin, the active ingredient of Bristol-Myers Squibb's now off patent Pravachol, which will facilitate industrial-scale statin drug production.

In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers have devised a single-step fermentative method for the industrial production of the active drug pravastatin that previously involved a costly dual-step fermentation and biotransformation process.

Reprogramming the antibiotics-producing fungus Penicillium chrysogenum, with discovery and engineering of a cytochrome P450 enzyme involved in the hydroxylation of the precursor compactin, enabled high level fermentation of the correct form of pravastatin to facilitate efficient industrial-scale statin drug production.