Twist Bioscience sees impressive revenue growth as firm preps Wilsonville factory for new antibody discovery program
10 Nov 2022
Synthetic biology firm Twist Bioscience has seen its revenue expand quickly in recent years. According to a recent Forbes article, newly promoted President and COO Patrick Finn is on track to grow sales to $203 million for 2022, up from $2 million in 2016.
This is good news for San Francisco-based Twist, which debuted on Nasdaq in 2018. Twist is leading the synthetic biology industry with its proprietary technology enables it to manufacture synthetic DNA by “writing” the DNA on a silicon chip.
According to Forbes, "[Finn] joined Twist in 2015 in advance of the launch of its commercial synthetic DNA products. Since then, the company has significantly expanded the range of its offerings, venturing into next-generation sequencing (NGS) and DNA data storage, in addition to their ongoing DNA synthesis program for synthetic biology, healthcare, and academic sectors. But the biggest reason why Twist is currently valued at $1.9 billion is the potential to use their silicon DNA synthesis platform for the discovery of new drugs."
The company is increasingly investing its resources in discovering and developing novel antibody therapeutics. According to the Forbes article, antibody-based drugs are a $186 billion market, and growing quickly.
Together with Twist CEO Emily Leproust, Finn has led efforts to expand the firm's global footprint and maximize production capacity. This includes a new "Factory of the Future" in Wilsonville, just outside of Portland, Oregon. The facility is set to ship its first product in January 2023.
"[The facility is] approximately 110,000 square feet, nearly twice the size of the San Francisco Bay Area facility, with the option to nearly double this square footage in the future," the Forbes article says. "It will house the new antibody discovery and validation program and provide additional space to help Twist fulfill the needs of its growing markets, from DNA synthesis to biopharma to DNA data storage."