How biotech is fueling the energy transition

Starting the week with a look at how biotech is fueling the energy transition and fighting back against today’s diseases and tomorrow’s pandemics. (672 words, 3 minutes, 21 seconds)

How biotech is fueling the energy transition

We needed climate solutions yesterday. A BIO webinar last week, “Climate Policy Innovation Series: Fueling the Energy Transition,” explored how BIO members LanzaTech and Virent, Inc. are already bringing biobased solutions to new heights, reports Bio.News.

Meet LanzaTech: With a mission to reduce carbon emissions from some of the hardest-to-abate sectors, LanzaTech recycles carbon waste using fermentation to make products ranging from fabrics and foam, cleaners and detergents, and packaging like plastic bottles.

“One of the most exciting applications of waste carbon products is sustainable aviation fuel,” said Tom Dower, VP of Public Policy for LanzaTech, which worked with the U.S. Department of Energy to scale its process for turning low-carbon ethanol into low-carbon and cleaner-burning jet fuel.

Meet Virent: This company turns plant sugars into usable products—including renewable diesel, biobased polyester, and a 100% drop-in sustainable aviation jet fuel, “a direct replacement for jet fuel today,” said Dave Kettner, President & General Counsel for Virent, Inc.

And it’s taking off: In December 2021, Virent partnered with United Airlines, Boeing, GE Aviation, and other entities to fly the first commercial passenger flight powered by SAF.

Why it matters: LanzaTech’s vision is a “sustainable world where the end of life of one product actually becomes the feedstock for a new product, and on and on,” said Dower. “We see this being broadly applicable across geographies, both in the United States and around the world, creating local economic drivers for sustainable jobs.”

What it means for biotech: Biotech offers “a path around the engineering challenges of dealing with so many of society’s problems,” said Dower. “This is our opportunity,” concluded Kettner, “and I think that’s where BIO and biotechnology has a place to play. And I think we’re going to get there.”

Learn more: Read the recap on Bio.News or watch the full webinar at BIO.org.

How innovation helps us check creative germs

The germs threatening us are getting creative—but so are the people developing treatments, explains Phyllis Arthur, BIO’s SVP of Infectious Diseases and Emerging Science Policy.

The next pandemic could be from a fast-mutating respiratory virus like COVID or bacteria developing antimicrobial resistance, Phyllis Arthur recently told Federal Newswire. “We have several different potential waves coming at us that could cause a lot of unnecessary disease.”

Fortunately, biotech is reacting quickly: Innovations like the updated COVID vaccines and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) vaccines protect public health.

While these new vaccines and medicines help us now, medical innovations are essential to preparing for the next pandemic, said Arthur—for example, mRNA technology was the product of years of previous development.

But the public needs to get on board: Now is the time for people to get the updated COVID vaccines, as well as the annually updated flu vaccine—and BIO is working with community organizations to encourage people to do just that.

The bottom line: “People need to understand the risk of COVID, or RSV, or flu. What can come from that [is] hospitalization, respiratory illness, complications from diseases you already have,” said Arthur. Preventing the next pandemic requires using the protections we have.

More Health News: 

Health Affairs: How the IRA could delay pharmaceutical launches, reduce indications, and chill evidence generation
“The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022 significantly changes the economic incentives surrounding clinical development in the United States, affecting drug manufacturers’ decisions about whether to pursue the types of post-approval research,” say pharmacists and researchers at the National Pharmaceutical Council, providing three case studies. 

The Fayetteville Observer (Opinion): Superbug killers that threaten our health in North Carolina and beyond
“The PASTEUR Act, a bipartisan bill advancing through Congress, proposes a new payment model for antimicrobials that switches our current volume-based profit model to a value-based one,” writes Laura Gunter, President of the North Carolina Life Sciences Organization, NCLifeSci. “Congress should waste no time authorizing this model to ensure patients like my son have access to effective antibiotics in the future.”

President Biden’s Monday: Greeting Amtrak workers in Delaware before heading back to the White House.

What’s Happening on Capitol Hill: The Senate is expected to vote this week (possibly today) on Biden’s nominee to lead NIH, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli.