Index >> Industrial Microbiology >> Steriods Translations in Pharmaceutical Industry

For example cortisone can be synthesised chemically from deoxycholic acid but the process requires 37 steps, many of which must be carried out under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure with the resulting product costing over $200 per gram. The most difficult is introduction of oxygen atom at number 11 position of the steroid ring, but this can be accomplished by some microorganisms. The fungus, Rhizopus nigricans for example hydroxylates progesterone, forming another steroid with the introduction of oxygen at the number 11 position.

The use of such microbial biotransformations in the formation of cortisone has lowered the original cost over 400-fold, so that in 1980 the price of cortisone in the U.S. was less than 50 cents per gram, compared to the original $200.

In a typical steroid transformation process, the microbe, such as Rhizopus nigricans is grown in a fermentation tank using an appropriate growth medium and incubation conditions to achieve a high biomass. In most cases agitation and aeration are done to have rapid growth.