Zea Platform

Simply put, the Zea platform is an advanced hydroponics system for biologic drug development and linear scale-up to virtually any capacity. It is housed in a modular clean room with proprietary air flow, lighting, etc… The capital cost vs large-scale bioreactors is approximately 10X cheaper. The lead time to set one up is 3-6 mo vs 24-36 mo for a bioreactor facility where the lead time for just the bioreactor itself is 1-2 years. We can place one or more Zea platforms virtually anywhere in the world with just basic utilities and square footage and it is amenable to clean energy solutions- solar, wind, hydro-electric. We already licensed a hemophilia program from UPenn and have several other academic collaborations. Our team consists of biotech industry veterans, renowned plant scientists and a host of other specialists. For most it is a passion project- a way to finally start addressing the rest of the world with biologic therapies and vaccines.

To meet cGMP manufacturing standards and FDA/EMA requirements for biologic drugs, you must have a “well-controlled” process. This really means that every factor that can influence growth of the production system and productivity of the target protein must be controlled for. For a long time, virtually everyone has used bioreactors to achieve this. They work well and quality has improved over the years, however the cost and complexity have continued to rise and are a major contributor to the high prices of biologic drugs. Not only is the cost a major issue, but the level of education needed can also be problematic for many developing countries. The Zea platform changes things significantly. By using plants as the bioreactors we can cut costs in a very meaningful way, we enable linear scaling where every plant is treated the same so the system can scale almost infinitely with sufficient space. Our platform can be setup almost anywhere and requires minimal training. During Covid, we saw the inherent problems with centralized manufacturing in major markets and the inability to manage a global supply chain in a crisis. Let’s consider a different scenario where every country can produce their own therapies. We supply the genetically modified seeds and protocols for growing them and they produce what they need.

Worldwide there is a massive disparity between healthcare and the availability of life-saving therapies between the major markets and the rest of the world. Take hemophilia as an example. Recombinant clotting factors became commercially available more than 20 years ago. Yet today, 75% of the patients across the globe remain untreated and live with a terrible quality of life and fear of dying every day. This is because annual treatment with a clotting factor costs $300-$500 thousand dollars per patient. We need a solution for the high cost of biologic drugs and we need a solution for the global supply chain where cold chain management really doesn’t work for many countries, especially in a time of crisis like the Covid pandemic.

Zea has a great team with deep expertise in biologic drug development, commercialization and global expansion. We have experts in plant science and connections to world leading academic centers. We have experts in clean room technology, materials and air handling. The list goes on with many viewing Zea as a passion project and one of the first meaningful opportunities to change the cost structure and availability of biologic therapies.

We have a game-changing platform that can address a wide-range of biologic therapies and vaccines. We need all the best minds and help we can get!

Long history of working on biologic therapies for rare diseases over his 20+ years in biotech.