Our company’s inspiring history began in 1990 with the work of two talented postdoctoral fellows at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. With the objective of developing manufacturing solutions for complex natural phytochemicals using Plant Cell Fermentation (PCF®) Technology, they advanced an idea that many people thought would be impossible to realize: to produce paclitaxel (one of the world’s most important anti-cancer drugs) from plant cell cultures through plant cell fermentation instead of by harvesting rare and slow-growing pacific yew trees.

Today, Phyton Biotech is the world’s largest producer of high-quality paclitaxel and docetaxel via Plant Cell Fermentation (PCF®) technology. We also offer comprehensive development services for biopharmaceuticals and phytochemicals using PCF®, serving the Pharmaceutical, Cosmetic, Agricultural and Food Ingredient industries. Phyton is a subsidiary of DFB Pharmaceuticals.

Awards

Cornell University

Company Milestones

Phyton Acquires Largest cGMP PCF® Facility in the World

In 1993, Phyton acquired a manufacturing plant in Ahrensburg, Germany (near Hamburg) and created the largest GMP PCF® facility in the world, with fermentors up to 75,000 L in size. This achievement helped spawn a long-term collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) to scale up and supply the company with paclitaxel-containing broth produced using Phyton’s patented technology. Commercial supply to BMS began in 2002 under an agreement that lasted just over a decade.

In 2003, Phyton was acquired by DFB Pharmaceuticals, a private Texas-based investment company with an established track record of success in pharmaceutical manufacturing, product development and commercialization. Under DFB, Phyton continued to advance PCF® to express a recombinant protein for enzyme replacement therapy that was advanced to a pre-clinical trial by 2007.

In late 2009, Phyton acquired the assets of Natural Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a global supplier of oncology APIs including paclitaxel and docetaxel, with a finished API manufacturing facility near Vancouver, Canada. Phyton’s goal with this acquisition was to expand its API development and commercialization business.

Phyton combined the capabilities of its German and Canadian facilities and staff to develop and commercialize both paclitaxel and docetaxel API using PCF® rather than relying on the industry norm of using 10-DAB as the starting material. Our goal was to pioneer the supply of high-quality paclitaxel and docetaxel in a sustainable, environmentally responsible and efficient manner.

In 2012, Phyton launches its own commercial oncology API business, selling paclitaxel and docetaxel on a global basis. It becomes the world’s largest producer of taxane APIs and possesses the capacity to meet over ⅓ of the world’s demand for paclitaxel and docetaxel API.

In 2014, Phyton begins to broaden its scope beyond the production of paclitaxel and docetaxel and into the development of important new molecules and production of recombinant proteins for biosimilar and bio-better applications. Phyton now offers comprehensive and leading-edge development services for the development, production and commercialization of high-value plant-based compounds using PCF®, serving the pharmaceutical, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), cosmetic, agricultural and food ingredient industries.