Building Pharmaceutical Supply-Chain Resilience

Summary

Podcast Summary: Building Pharmaceutical Supply-Chain Resilience

Podcast: Bloomberg Businessweek
Hosts: Carol Massar, Tim Stenovec
Guest: Dr. Christina Smolke, Co-founder & CEO of Anthea
Date: November 4, 2025
Topic: Innovations in pharmaceutical ingredient manufacturing and supply chain resilience

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the vulnerabilities in the pharmaceutical supply chain, particularly the United States’ dependence on foreign manufacturers—primarily China—for active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). It explores how innovative companies like Anthea are leveraging biotechnology to localize and stabilize the production of life-saving drugs. Dr. Christina Smolke, CEO of Anthea, discusses her company’s unique approach to manufacturing pharmaceutical ingredients using engineered yeast, the impact on public health and security, regulatory considerations, and the future of domestic drug manufacturing.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Strategic Risk of Foreign API Dependence

• [01:40] The hosts highlight how the US rarely discusses medicines in the context of strategic trade, despite China's dominant role in the global API market, which creates vulnerabilities in drug access during geopolitical or supply disruptions.
  • Quote (Carol Massar):
    “We often talk about China's large domestic market and its rare earths, but ... not that often, Carol, we talk about medicine.” [01:40]

Anthea’s Technological Breakthrough

• [03:28] Dr. Smolke explains that Anthea has developed a fermentation-based method to produce APIs using yeast, akin to brewing beer, but instead yielding medicine at pharmaceutical grade.
  • This process allows local, more predictable, and less vulnerable supply chains—shifting from long, complex, overseas production to efficient domestic manufacturing.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “We’re able to take yeast and ... instead of producing beer, can produce these critical life-saving pharmaceutical ingredients.” [03:35]

Scientific Process & Platform Flexibility

• [04:50] The process works by "programming" yeast to synthesize specified molecules:
  • Anthea genetically modifies yeast based on the desired medicinal molecule, feeds them sugar, and the yeast generates the API.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “We throw the yeast into a large vat, we feed them sugar, and they’re basically working as miniature medicine factories...” [05:05]

Commercialization and Industry Response

• [05:46] Anthea’s technology is already commercial, with rapid adoption by customers needing stable supply chains. It operates as a platform, enabling the development of multiple APIs—not just a single drug.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “We launched our first product commercially now about a year ago and basically seen tremendous response from the market and from our customers.” [05:48]

Regulatory Compliance

• [07:42] The hosts inquire about FDA oversight. Dr. Smolke assures that fermentation-based pharmaceutical production is established practice (ex: insulin), and Anthea’s products are subjected to all FDA requirements.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “Because the idea of fermenting or using biosynthesis to produce medicines is not novel...Anthea has already gone through those approval processes.” [07:42]

Business Model: Supplying APIs to Pharma Companies

• [08:25] Anthea focuses on ingredients, selling APIs to pharmaceutical companies that then complete drug formulation.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “We’re able to basically sell the ingredient to pharmaceutical companies globally and our pharmaceutical customers...formulate it into the drug product...” [08:33]

Addressing Drug Shortages—A Personal Example

• [09:01] Carol Massar shares a personal anecdote about an amoxicillin shortage for her son, underscoring the problem of thin profit margins and fragile supplies for basic generics. Dr. Smolke confirms Anthea’s mission addresses precisely these essential, often shortage-prone drugs.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “First and foremost, it’s exactly the type of thing that you just highlighted...basic antibiotics, cold medicines...that’s the type of thing that we’re bringing to market today.” [09:45]
  • The technology also reduces costs and can be extended to more advanced drugs in the long run.

Biosafety & Consistency

• [10:55] Concerns are raised about the risks of using living organisms in manufacturing. Dr. Smolke clarifies that only the final, purified chemical is sold—yeast and biological residues are entirely removed—and that biosynthesis can result in fewer byproducts than existing methods.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “At the end of the day, the product that we sell and the product that goes to patients, it is a chemical ... We purify that chemical down to greater than 99% purity and meet all existing requirements.” [11:28]

Funding and the Road Ahead

• [12:24] Anthea recently raised $56 million in Series C funding, which will support scaling and market expansion.
  • Quote (Dr. Smolke):
    “We’re leveraging that funding...to really grow and ramp basically how we bring our products to market...” [12:36]

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Memorable Quotes & Notable Moments

• “China’s power rests on its grip over the global supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs...” – Carol Massar [01:53]
• “It is increasingly being viewed as a national security risk ... based upon the United States reliance on foreign sources for these materials.” – Dr. Christina Smolke [02:50]
• “Right now, what we’re bringing to market are the ones that are most critical for public health.” – Dr. Christina Smolke [10:53]

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• 01:40 – Introduction to pharmaceutical supply chain vulnerabilities
• 03:28 – Anthea’s biosynthetic approach using yeast
• 04:50 – Scientific breakdown of the process
• 05:46 – Commercialization and pipeline expansion
• 07:42 – FDA oversight and regulatory processes
• 08:25 – Business model: supplying ingredients to major pharma
• 09:01 – Real-world example of drug shortages and Anthea’s focus
• 10:55 – Biosafety and quality assurance
• 12:24 – Funding and future plans

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Conclusion

This episode offered an illuminating look at how technological innovation can address strategic risks in pharmaceutical supply chains. By harnessing engineered yeast to produce APIs locally, Anthea aims to ease drug shortages for critical, everyday medicines, lower costs, and reinforce national security. Dr. Smolke’s insights highlighted the intersection of cutting-edge biotech, public health, and economic resilience, giving listeners a clear sense of both the scale of the problem and the promise of solutions already coming to market.

Transcript

[Narrator/Announcer]

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[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with.

[Interviewer 2 (Possibly Tim Stankus)]

Carol Massar and Tim Stanvak on Bloomberg Radio.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

Thinking about leverage and trade negotiations between the US And China? We often talk about China's large domestic market and its rare earths, but not that often. Carol, we talk about medicine.

[Interviewer 3]

No, we don't. But we are going to talk about it now.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

We're going to a Bloomberg piece from last week, actually, ahead of this week's meeting between the president and Chinese President Xi Jinping notes that China's power rests on its grip over the global supply of active pharmaceutical ingredients, or APIs, which are core components of commercial drugs. Beijing's broad sway extends upstream to the raw chemicals, the solvents, the reagents known as key starting materials needed to make the APIs themselves. Dr. Christina Smolke thinks a lot about this. She's the co founder and CEO of Anthea It's a pharmaceutical ingredient producer. Their goal is to end drug shortages. She joins us from Menlo Park, California. Dr. Smolke, great to have you on the program. A pharmaceutical ingredient producer. We think about this. I don't. I don't often think about, you know, when I take a Pill. What actually goes into the manufacture of these pills? What I do know is that oftentimes it comes from outside of the United States. Oftentimes the supply chain spans the globe. Is that a national security risk?

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Yeah, thanks for that question. It is increasingly being viewed as a national security risk. And the reason is that is based upon the United States reliance on foreign sources for these materials and also the increasing frequency and duration of disruptions we are experiencing in critical life saving medicines.

[Interviewer 3]

So tell us a little bit about what you guys are doing specifically. I agree with Tim. I think we just get our prescriptions, we take them, and not until there's a problem do we like, wait, what's in this stuff? So talk to us about what you are doing or trying to do.

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Yes, Anthea has developed a new way to produce these critical life saving pharmaceutical ingredients. It's leveraging a technology that allows us to do so in a way that is more resilient, more predictable, and addresses a lot of the pain points we see in the current industry. In particular, what Anthea's technology allows us to do is to shift from producing these medicines overseas in very long, as I said, very basically vulnerable, multi step processes to a process that looks closer to brewing beer. So we're able to take yeast and we basically modify those yeast so that they can basically instead of producing beer, can produce these critical life saving pharmaceutical ingredients. And one of the key advantages of that is that then allows us to move those production processes more locally into the United States.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

So at what point in the process does, does that, does that happen? I mean, are you, are you, are you taking it from the perspective of, okay, you're, you understand what goes into a given medication and you can create the, the ingredients from the yeast then or, or do you sort of reverse engineer it? You take the final product and you say, okay, this is what we need to produce and here's how we can do it. Like, how does that work scientifically?

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Great. Yes, great question. Scientifically it works as us saying, this is the molecule that we want to produce, this is the medicine that we want to produce. We know the endpoint, we know the structure. Then we basically will modify, program the yeast and really teach them through making modifications to their genome, to be able to then synthesize those pharmaceutical ingredients from sugar. Essentially what the process will look like at scales. We throw the yeast into a large vat, we feed them sugar, and they're basically working as miniature medicine factories to convert that sugar directly to the pharmaceutical ingredient that then ultimately will be formulated into the medicine that patients take.

[Interviewer 3]

So how could this help me understand how? Is this being done already?

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Yes, it is being done already. So, Anthea, we launched our first product commercially now about a year ago and basically seen tremendous response from the market and from our customers. Again, really responding to the solutions that this brings in terms of shoring up their supply chains and their ability to have very stable, very consistent, consistent supply of these medicines. So it's now a technology that's fully commercial. And one of the, I think, very powerful things about this technology is it is a true platform we've built out. While we've launched our first product commercially, we've built out a very large pipeline of pharmaceutical ingredients that we are applying this strategy to and now queued up to basically launch our second and third product shortly.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

How do you characterize the, the makeup of the medications or the ingredients that since they're produced from yeast, how are they classified? Like, are they synthetic? Are they naturally occurring? Like, are they based?

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Yes.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

Yeah, I don't understand that.

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Great question. So one of the things to really highlight here is that we already leverage fermentation to produce medicines in our pharmaceutical supply chain. Insulin is an example of that. We used to extract insulin from animals and now it's all produced via fermentation process. So within the industry, we follow very standard procedures for how the molecules that we produce are characterized. We ensure that they basically are exactly the same as what is already being used in these medicines and meet all of the quality requirements that are needed to ensure patients not just have access to these life saving medicines, but that they are safe and consistent for them as well.

[Interviewer 3]

Christina, what's the FDA oversight of all of this?

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Yes, these are basically tracked and approved by the fda. And so again, because the idea of fermenting or using biosynthesis to produce medicines is not novel, within the industry, there are regulatory basically steps in terms of how they are approved. And Anthea has already gone through those approval processes. Everything is produced within the quality that the FDA requires.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

So what? So if a pharmaceutical, a pharmaceutical company, like what is your relationship with a pharmaceutical company, a pharmaceutical company were to come to you and say, we want you to manufacture this, is that how it works?

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

Yeah. At this stage, the medicines that we're bringing to market are again, we're focused on the medicines that play the most critical role in public health, but really transforming and rebuilding those supply chains so that drug shortages do not infect patients going forward. And so we're able to basically sell the ingredient to pharmaceutical companies globally and our Pharmaceutical customers basically will take that ingredient and then formulate it into the drug product that the patient actually takes.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

You know, I ran into an issue a couple years ago. I've talked about this on air before, but it was with amoxicillin.

[Interviewer 3]

Yeah, I remember this.

[Narrator/Announcer]

Right.

[Interviewer 1 (Possibly Carol Massar)]

Yeah. My son had this terrible ear infection, like just screaming. And the doctor couldn't find a pharmacy that had amoxicillin coming off the pen. It was coming off the pandemic. And it was interesting because a few months before that we had had a, I think it was a big take story that talked about the profit margins are so small on some of these generics that it's hard to find producers to actually make these drugs. Ultimately, we did find a pharmacy that had it, thank God. And you know, you take that medication and within hours that ear infection is better. But is that the type of thing, Doctor, that you're trying to solve, or is it more advanced drugs, more complicated drugs than that?

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

No, it's exactly the type of. First and foremost, it's exactly the type of thing that you just highlighted. Right. And you're not alone. I've experienced the same thing. Whether it's, you know, basic antibiotics, cold medicines, you know, things that are required for surgery industry, we don't expect these to be in shortage because they're not the most advanced, latest drugs, but they are. That's the type of thing that we're bringing to market today. Right now, in solving those issues, one of the things I would just highlight coming back to by leveraging this technology, it solves not just being able to synthesize it domestically so that we have greater control and transparency over these supply chains. It does so at a fraction of the cost because it's really leveraging novel technology to make sure that we can synthesize them in more efficient and cost effective ways. So it addresses some of that issue that you just described. Now, the same technology can also be applied to new medicines and advanced medicines as well. And that's really a longer term trajectory that Anthea is looking at. But right now, what we're bringing to market are the ones that are most critical for public health.

[Interviewer 3]

So when you're doing biologics or biosynthesis, Christina, I mean, my understanding you're using a living organism and engineered systems or living organisms raise a lot of questions when it comes to biosafety or unintended byproducts, how to regulate them. So I'm just curious. That makes it difficult, right? And also providing consistency. So that is one of the things that that is is a risk.

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

It's a great question and let me highlight a couple of things about the technology itself. At the end of the day, the product that we sell and the product that goes to patients, it is a chemical we are not. It's, you know, the living organism is actually not going into the patients. Yes, we use a yeast cell to make the product, but ultimately we purify that chemical down to greater than 99% purity and meet all existing requirements. So it's very well characterized. So that carryover of sort of an uncontrolled living organism into a patient, that doesn't happen with this technology. The other thing I will just highlight and what we have been able to show with this platform is that we can program the synthesis so precisely that we actually are able to provide products that have fewer byproducts than what we see through other manufacturing approaches.

[Interviewer 3]

Hey, just lastly 20 seconds and I know you guys did a series C about $56 million. When is it commercially viable? And forgive me, it's just 20 seconds here.

[Dr. Christina Smolke]

No, absolutely. As I mentioned and there is commercial at this stage and work and now what we're doing is we're leveraging that funding, leveraging the support from the investors to really grow and ramp basically how we bring our products to market, what markets we can enter and ensure that this is truly disruptive.

[Interviewer 3]

Come back and keep us informed. Christina Smolke, Co Founder CEO of Anthea, joining us.

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