Development of thirdgeneration hormones

With support from Fondef, Corfo, and the private sector, specifically Recalcine Laboratories, the research group of the Natural Products Chemistry Laboratory, headed by Dr. Mario Silva, is looking for ways to produce useful compounds for the Chilean pharmaceutical industry with cellulose residues.

The biotechnological research developed by the researchers of this Laboratory of the Faculty of Natural and Oceanographic Sciences has contributed to the generation of new products based in phytosterols obtained from a cellulose industrial residue: tall oil.

Through the development of a biotechnological process, the phytosterols are transformed into a product of great commercial value: Androstenedion, precursor of the sexual and cortical hormones with a great international demand. This process has permitted the
formation of a perfect link between market requirements and technological development, obtaining compounds that will be of great use in the national pharmaceutical industry.

In addition to the economic benefits that this work could bring to the country, it has prepared an important number of young researchers and technical personnel as specialists in the theme. These new researchers are now developing projects to functionalize different positions of the steroid molecule to obtain the latest generation of hormone intermediaries for therapeutic use, opening in this way the
commercial perspectives of the project Development of Biotechnological Processes for Third-Generation Hormone Production, that has been functioning since 2001.

To develop this project, the Laboratory receives financing from the Universidad de Concepción, Fondef and Corfo’s Innovative Development Fund. To obtain support from Fondef and Corfo, the support of the private sector, in this case, Recalcine, was essential.

Among the project’s benefits are the active beginning that actually are not produced in Chile and, consequently, had to be imported, influencing in both the economic and scientific aspects. In this way, this type of project should provide, within a few years, a transcendental change in the national pharmaceutical industry, transforming it into an exporter of high added-value products, which are actually only produced in developed countries.

University - Industry

Since 1996, Recalcine Laboratories has supported this research related to steroid hormones. In this way, the pharmaceutical corporation has strives to become the first Chilean laboratory that counts with the scientific capacity to produce, in the short term, steroidal medicine in Chile.

The University-Industry relation, like the work he is doing with Recalcine, offers benefits in both economic and academic areas.“It is important for us to work with the private sector because the financing agencies request that our projects be current and of national interest, and that this interest be demonstrated with financial support. Consequently, they need to be projects that can be applied. Additionally, the only way to improve the country is through good quality science that is important to industry.”