Manus Bio Inc. (Manus Bio), a company which produces complex natural products through advanced fermentation, announced today that it has received additional funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to accelerate the development of a scalable and cost-effective production method for artemisinin, a key therapeutic for treating malaria. With its initial award last year, Manus Bio applied its proprietary microbial chassis and unique enzyme engineering approaches to develop a novel microbial platform for the production of a key precursor, artemisinic acid. Successful completion of this milestone has led to a second award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Artemisinin-based combination drugs remain the recommended first-line treatment for malaria. With this next round of funding and support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, we are excited to tackle this global problem by developing an advanced fermentation production platform to stabilize the supply of artemisinin, said Dr. Ajikumar Parayil, CEO of Manus Bio.