Technology & Strategy

Classical strategy in Natural Products-based Drug Discovery begins with the isolation of environmental samples, extract analysis, dereplication, lead identification and, finally, optimization and the choice of a candidate for development. EntreChem strategy for putting Natural Products back in the forefront of Drug Discovery avoids the early stages of the classical approach and starts with a known lead compound (an approved, clinical stage or bioactive described molecule) over which we apply our technology to obtain NCEs out of reach by other methods. These NCEs could provide a better candidate for preclinical development.

Since we obtain analogs of products with known properties, we are reducing technical and commercial risks associated to previously unknown product families.




Recent developments in recombinant DNA technology have enabled rapid advances in the cloning of gene clusters involved in the biosynthesis of many bioactive Natural Products produced by microorganisms, as well as detailed knowledge of their metabolic pathways, significantly raising the potential of the combinatorial biosynthesis field in the last decade.

Complementary to chemical synthesis and microbial fermentation, the manipulation of genes governing secondary metabolic pathways offers a promising alternative for preparation of complex Natural Products and their analogs biosynthetically.

Gene clusters encoding many Natural Products have been cloned and characterized, and it is now possible to introduce specific structural alterations into a natural product in the presence of abundant functional groups by rational manipulation of the gene cluster governing its biosynthesis. The resulting molecules can be produced recombinantly by large-scale fermentation.

One of the aspects of our technology is the development of a series of “sugar plasmids”, able to direct the biosynthesis of rare sugars that form part of numerous bioactive compounds of interest in the clinical, agricultural or veterinary markets. Also, we have identified several glycosyltransferases (GTFs) that participate in biosynthesis of bioactive compounds with flexibility in their capacity to recognize and to transfer different sugars.

 Value Chain

Navigating the entire Value Chain of New Drugs for Human Health is a time- and money-consuming endeavor that may last 10 years or more, but also provides many opportunities for innovators like EntreChem.





Our core activities are the generation of New Molecules (New Chemical Entities), the supply of these for biological in vitro and in vivo testing and the development of an optimized process for the production of the candidate compounds. We also perform activities in early preclinical testing, taking advantage of our access to an SPF animal facility next door.


Our activities during this start-up phase are, thus localized in the upstream portion of the Value Chain, the entry point being discovery of new molecules obtained by licensing-in agreements with the University of our co-founders and more recently by our own internal R&D efforts.




EntreChem Business Model consists of developing viable compounds through the value chain in order to reach significant technical milestones to the point of licensing-out to a company positioned downstream in the value chain that would take the product through late clinical trials and commercialization. Our corporate strategy is to develop the product until Phase II and then license out.