Ginkgo has signed multiple collaborations, announced a breakthrough in manufacturing mRNA vaccine components, and landed an SPAC deal.
Jason Kelly, co-founder and chief executive officer of Ginkgo Bioworks, is excited about the momentum his company is seeing this year. The company has signed multiple collaborations, announced a breakthrough in manufacturing mRNA vaccine components, and landed a massive SPAC deal that placed the company on the Nasdaq exchange.
During an earnings call this week highlighting the company’s progress in the first half of 2021, Kelly pointed to those positive events and noted that multiple programs on the company’s platform are “delivering value” to its clients. Additionally, state governments are expressing interest in Ginkgo’s biosecurity offering, of which the bulk includes COVID-19 testing, particularly as the pandemic continues to run rampant across the United States.
Ginkgo has secured new statewide contracts in Arizona, California, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, as well as other states and large school districts. These contracts are expected to deliver biosecurity solutions to millions of students across the country.
“We are proud to be a part of the solution and are updating our outlook for the balance of the year to reflect these events. Investing in biosecurity today strengthens our foundation as we endeavor to make biology easier to engineer,” he said.
Boston-based Ginkgo, which has been dubbed “the organism company,” due to its manufacture of custom microbes for drug, cosmetic and food companies, has seen significant growth this year. In addition to its SPAC deal, the company has struck multiple partnerships. Ginkgo is collaborating with Biogen, Corteva and Aldevron, a research to GMP biomanufacturer of plasmid DNA, mRNA and proteins.
Its partnership with Aldevron resulted in the mRNA manufacturing breakthrough. Its partnership with Cronos is ramping up commercial production of CBG, and Motif Foodworks announced the upcoming commercial launch of new ingredients.
Additionally, Ginkgo acquired the fungal platform technology company Dutch DNA Biotech B.V. in May. The Netherlands-based company develops fungal strains and fermentation processes for the production of proteins and organic acids. The acquisition gave the Massachusetts-based Ginkgo its first international toehold.
Those partnerships are driving revenue at Ginkgo. In the first half of 2021, the company reported total revenue of $88 million, which is up 180% over the same time last year. In the first half of 2020, Ginkgo earned $31 million. Foundry revenue was up 41% to $44 million for the first half, and Biosecurity revenue was also $44 million. Given the first half earnings, it anticipates Biosecurity revenue to hit $75 million by the end of 2021.
The Boston Business Journal reported that Kelly envisions a broad and ambitious future for Ginkgo. The CEO of Gingko also sees the company’s biological programming capabilities being accessible to anyone. He likened the future of Ginkgo to Amazon Web Services, where researchers will pay to use the company platform.
Ginkgo would manufacture biological material for the researcher, who would then use it for their studies in hopes of commercializing the product. Kelly also views this model to provide downstream revenue for the company.
In its first half highlights, some of its downstream revenues are expected to happen this year. Potential royalties could come from sales of partner Aldevron’s vaccinia capping enzyme (VCE), a component required to produce mRNA. Some of that VCE sale will likely benefit from Ginkgo’s partnership with Moderna.
Ginkgo has been working with that company since early 2020. They partnered to optimize the production of raw materials necessary for the production of Moderna’s mRNA vaccine for COVID-19. Additional downstream revenues are expected from Ginkgo’s stake in Motif and milestone revenues from Cronos.
