Accelerating cures. Expanding access.

Lumen’s unique drug development environment radically reduces the time and investment required for biologic drug development.

Doing What’s Never
Been Done Before

Researchers around the world have long suspected that spirulina would be a valuable tool for making biologic drugs, if only it could be engineered. But these efforts failed for decades. Lumen was the ﬁrst to achieve this breakthrough. This makes orally delivered biologics commercially viable for the first time.

Daily, Oral
Biologic Drugs

We develop and manufacture biotherapeutics for disease targets that have been inaccessible, because of the astonishingly high cost of traditional biomanufacturing methods. Now, for the first time, Lumen can make antibodies and other biologics at a cost that allows for daily, oral and topical delivery.

Our current programs target diseases with well proven therapeutic mechanisms of action, and whose unmet medical need is obvious.

How It Works

01

The Organism

Being extraordinarily high in soluble protein (>60%), spirulina cells are able to express far higher amounts tof therapeutic proteins than any other food crop.

02

Bio Engineering

A gene encoding the therapeutic molecule (for example, an antibody protein or cytokine) is introduced into the spirulina chromosome.

03

Production

The production system requires only water, salt, CO2, and light, so it is cheap and massively scalable. The entire biomass is simply spray dried to a fine powder.

04

Delivery

For G.I. targets, this powder is packed into capsules or tablets. Most are shelf-stable at room temperature which makes distribution cheap and easy.

Better Tools Yield
Better Outcomes

Time, risk, and money are the three wild cards of drug development. Lumen’s unique drug development environment improves all three because of the proven safety of the expression host (spirulina) and the speed at which we’re able to safely develop and manufacture new biologics.

The long safety records of both spirulina and orally delivered protein therapeutics make our drugs less risky for study volunteers and patients. And, post-approval, our patented technology enables us to manufacture orally delivered biologic drugs at a cost per gram two to three orders of magnitude lower than traditional biomanufacturing.

Taken together, these advantages enable new solutions for diseases that have long frustrated researchers hampered by the limitations of conventional drug development.

Our patented technology
enables us to manufacture orally delivered biologic drugs at a cost two to three orders of magnitude lower than conventional bio manufacturing.

We Like The Idea Of Helping
As Many People As Possible

In conventional of drug development, it is common for companies to spend many years and huge sums of money developing extraordinarily expensive drugs intended to help relatively small groups of patients. Lumen focuses on the rapid development of biologic drugs that will help hundreds of millions of people at costs far lower than previously thought possible.

How Far Does $1,000 In Manufacturing Costs Go?

Traditional technology yields enough for two patients.

Lumen technology yields enough for 290 patients.

We’ve Identified Many Disease Targets,
Both Short- And Long-Term

See Our Pipeline