Breaking the Cost Barrier on Biomanufacturing

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Are bioproducts made from precision fermentation processes—long predicted to disrupt industries from pharmaceuticals to food to chemicals—finally on the verge of achieving their potential?

Demand is solidifying. The need to achieve sustainability in manufacturing while reducing carbon emissions means that all kinds of companies need ingredients and inputs produced through biological processes. More than 4,100 of the world’s largest companies have established emissions-reduction targets, according to the Science Based Targets initiative, with more than 2,600 of them including net zero emissions commitments. The Biden Administration has set a target of producing “at least 30% of the US chemical demand via sustainable and cost-effective biomanufacturing pathways” within 20 years.

There has been great progress in the lab, with the development of new molecules and genetic strains. The big barrier to broader adoption so far has been biomanufacturing costs. With the exception of pharma—whose business models are mainly built on high-margin, low-volume products with low sensitivity to costs—and a few other product categories, precision fermentation and biomanufacturing have not yet proved to be economically viable at commercial scale.