INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
The chief executive officer of Demetrix studied yeast genetics and biochemistry in school and was an early employee at Amyris
Biotechnologies, a technology company that was using fermentation to make biofuels back in the early days of the first clean technology boom
Berkeley who co-founded Amyris and Demetrix, used to make biofuels is being applied to the production of cannabis.The company launched with
an $11 million seed round led by Horizons Ventures, a Hong Kong-based investment fund backed by the multi-billionaire real estate mogul Li
Ka-shing, to begin commercializing the technology that Keasling had been researching in his lab.The goal was to refine a process that would
enable yeasts to make a range of cannabinoids that are found in the marijuana plant which could be used to develop new pharmaceuticals,
additives and supplements for use in clinical and consumer applications
The technology works much the same way as brewing beer
Except instead of fermenting to produce alcohol, the fermentation process produces cannabinoids from genetically modified yeast cells.While
given new capital infusions the tide is turning.Demetrix, for instance, has raised another $50 million from Horizons Ventures and Tuatara
Capital, an investment firm focused on the legal cannabis industry, to significantly expand its production while simultaneously pursuing
And last June the United States Food and Drug Administration approved the first pharmaceutical derived from cannabis, Epidiolex, as a
treatment for patients with epilepsy.
