Khona Scientific and Bright Path Announce Creation of Project bioFORxGE

The collaboration establishes domestic production of generic and essential medicines by conjoining the Companies’ biosynthesis and chemisynthesis technologies.

BOULDER, CO, UNITED STATES, October 13, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Bright Path and Khona Scientific are pleased to announce Project bioFORxGE (Focusing on Reshoring Generics and Essentials), a collaboration aimed at strengthening the domestic end-to-end supply chain for essential medicines. The project will see the integration of the companies’ complementary technologies, capabilities, and expertise into a sovereign, end-to-end manufacturing platform spanning key starting material (KSM) production, active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) synthesis, and drug product manufacturing. This end-to-end strategy will conjoin Khona Scientific’s biosynthetic KSM production with Bright Path’s advanced manufacturing API chemisynthesis and drug product manufacturing capabilities.

Paclitaxel (Taxol^®) has been selected as the lead API to showcase this integrated manufacturing strategy. Paclitaxel is a taxane-based chemotherapeutic agent widely used to treat a variety of solid tumors, including breast, ovarian, and non-small cell lung cancers, as well as Kaposi sarcoma. Paclitaxel is commonly used in combination regimens with platinum-based agents such as carboplatin and cis-platin.

The limited availability of Paclitaxel illustrates how supply chain externalities can directly affect the supply of critical medicines. Although production has evolved from extracting paclitaxel directly from the inner bark of the Pacific yew (a species now under consideration for endangered status) to semi-synthesis from the KSM 10-deacetylbaccatin III (10-DAB), which is extracted from the renewable needles of the European yew, significant supply chain vulnerabilities remain. These challenges include both the extraction or production of 10-DAB and its subsequent conversion into paclitaxel API. Further compounding these issues are ongoing shortages in sterile manufacturing and fill-finish capacity required to transform the API into the final injectable drug product. Collectively, these dependencies create multiple single points of failure that threaten the availability of essential medicines, where even temporary disruptions can adversely affect patient care and public health.

Under this partnership, Khona Scientific will use its BiDS™ platform technology to biosynthesize the KSM precursor 10-DAB from renewable, domestic sugar feedstocks. 10-DAB is the KSM used in the manufacture of all FDA-approved taxane APIs, including paclitaxel, docetaxel, and cabazitaxel. Bright Path will convert Khona Scientific’s 10-DAB into paclitaxel API via chemisynthesis using its STT^® reactor technology. By way of this collaboration, the Companies will establish a more resilient, scalable, and verticalized production paradigm for taxane-based therapeutics.

“Paclitaxel is an ideal demonstration point for this collaboration as it resides at the intersection of therapeutic importance, supply chain vulnerability, alternative routes to an important KSM, and manufacturing complexity,” said Michael Gonzalez, CSO of Bright Path. “An end-to-end manufacturing chain is the result of pairing Khona Scientific’s biosynthetic KSM production with Bright Path’s continuous-flow manufacturing and formulation, fill, and finish capabilities. This will create a comprehensive route from sugar feedstock to finished medicines to address the current geopolitical climate. Projects like this are the cornerstone of supporting US reshoring initiatives and more important than ever.”

“This partnership represents an important application of our BiDS™ biosynthesis technology, which is ideally suited to address gaps in the pharmaceutical supply chain,” said Paul Orlady, CEO of Khona Scientific. “We’re excited to work with Bright Path to showcase how the pairing of advanced biosynthesis technology and modern pharmaceutical manufacturing can establish the pharmaceutical supply chains of tomorrow, today.”

The key milestones from this collaboration include 1) an optimized biosynthetic route of the KSM, 10-DAB, 2) an optimized continuous flow cGMP manufacturing to the API, paclitaxel, and 3) a manufacturing process to the sterile injectable paclitaxel drug product. Once demonstrated, this process can be repeated for the cabazitaxel and docetaxel APIs and drug products from the same 10-DAB KSM.

Bright Path and Khona Scientific look forward to providing a first-in-class solution for the issues of limited KSM availability, inefficient API synthesis, and shortfalls in finish-fill capacity. More broadly, this collaboration demonstrates a new model for sovereign pharmaceutical production that brings an added layer of resiliency to patient care and medicinal access.

About Khona Scientific Inc.

Khona Scientific is a synthetic biology pioneer implementing modular biomanufacturing solutions for production of complex natural product compounds from renewable, elementary feedstocks. The Company’s BiDS™ platform unlocks the full potential of Key Starting Material (KSM) and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredient (API) biomanufacturing by reengineering complex biosynthetic pathways to function as high-throughput molecular assembly lines. Khona Scientific is currently deploying its technology for production of KSMs and generic APIs for which quality, reliability, and adaptability are paramount. Learn more at http://www.khonascientific.com/.

About Bright Path

Bright Path is an advanced pharmaceutical development and manufacturing company focused on rebuilding America's pharmaceutical industrial base through innovative, end-to-end domestic manufacturing. The company develops and manufactures Key Starting Materials (KSMs), active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and finished drug products using advanced continuous manufacturing technologies designed to improve supply chain resilience, manufacturing efficiency, and national preparedness. Learn more at https://brightpath.inc/.

Media Contact

Michael A. Gonzalez, PhD, CSO
Bright Path
mgonzalez@brightpathlabs.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-a-gonzalez-ph-d-5398276/

Paul Orlady, CEO
Khona Scientific Inc.
Paul@khonascientific.com
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