Clinical-stage biotech developing new drugs for highly prevalent diseases using the unique strengths of a novel platform organism

Joined April 2017
48 Photos and videos
Biotech's future isn't about higher prices—it's about global scale and prevention. The industry's old playbook is broken. Two structural shifts are reshaping what comes next. New piece from our CEO Brian Finrow and Kevin Klowden in BioCentury: tinyurl.com/2um67p3m
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
New piece from me and @KevinKlowden in BioCentury today. “The future of biotech is preventive — and global”
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
From $100 a gram to 10 cents, #antibody production is having a revolution! Seattle-based @LumenBio, led by CEO Brian Finrow, is developing a method to produce antibodies in edible spirulina, drastically lowering costs and enabling oral administration: bit.ly/4oyZqYe
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
27 Nov 2025
That’s probably the most common question we get. Loads of information on the advantages and limitations of the technology here in our platform paper: nature.com/articles/s41587-0…
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
27 Nov 2025
Sure, extraordinary claims demand, extraordinary evidence. Fair enough. That said, while this is pending confirmation in the now-running phase 3 study, but we are encouraged by these preliminary results below: contagionlive.com/view/inves…
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
This Seattle co. says it can take the price of making mAbs/antibody drugs from $100/g to less than $0.10/g by growing them in a type of edible algae — and the Pentagon and Gates Foundation are listening endpoints.news/pentagon-back…
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Think slow drug development = safe? Wrong. Australia approves low-risk trials in weeks. COVID proved remote trials work. China's biotech now dominates 1/3 of pharma acquisitions—not better science, just faster regulation. Time to fix U.S. inefficiencies. statnews.com/2025/06/03/us-
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Thrilled to welcome David Saunders, MD, MPH to our clinical development team! A distinguished U.S. Army Colonel & clinical trialist, his expertise in infectious disease research will be crucial as we advance LMN-201 and our oral biologics pipeline. lumen.bio/news/2025/10/08/lu…
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Proud to announce Kole Krieger's promotion to Senior Vice President! His leadership in partnerships and operational excellence is crucial as we prepare for LMN-201's launch and advance our oral biologics pipeline. lumen.bio/news/2025/10/08/lu…
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Congratulations to Nhi Khuong, PhD on her promotion to Executive Vice President! Her scientific leadership has been crucial in advancing our biologics platform through clinical development as we prepare for LMN-201's launch. lumen.bio/news/2025/10/08/lu…
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Welcoming @jeffraikes to our board! His leadership experience at @Microsoft, @gatesfoundation & @Costco will be invaluable as we scale our biologics platform globally. lumen.bio/news/2025/10/08/lu…
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Excited to announce Erik Anderson as Vice Chairman of our Board. As CEO of @WestRiverVC & @singularityu, Erik led our Series C and brings invaluable experience as we scale our spirulina-based biologics platform. lumen.bio/news/2025/10/08/lu…
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
26 Jun 2025
.@rossry doesn't ask easy questions—he asks the right ones. Honored to be an early guest on the new @DevAndResearch interview series, where we dug deep on what makes drug development tick.
We're back with @DevAndResearch, where I spoke with @Finrow on: • why we should grow more drugs in algae, and fewer in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells, • why "monoclonal antibodies" are particularly safe and effective as drugs—but incredibly expensive to manufacture, • and whether the fundamental problem of the biotech industry is that everyone just has too much money. Timestamps: 01:17 What makes a molecule a drug? 04:48 What’s so great about antibody drugs? 05:59 The humble Chinese Hamster Ovary cell 11:27 Introducing: Lumen Biosciences 12:40 Why spirulina? 19:14 Why isn't everyone doing this? 23:53 Going after gut infections 33:44 “Cocktails” of protein drugs 50:25 Other diseases of outside-of-body lumens 01:04:36 How to run a different breed of biotech 01:17:44 “Everyone just has too much money” 01:21:07 Extinction events in the biotech industry…and “little mammals scurrying around” 01:24:28 Speculations about the future (for Lumen and the world of direct-to-consumer drugs)
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
3 Jun 2025
Good or bad, when institutions are remade it's an opportunity for fresh new ideas to root. There's plenty of negative criticism out there—from all sides—but @innovationwonk and I jotted down some constructive ideas to throw into the mix—published here in @statnews
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Lumen Bioscience retweeted
10 Apr 2025
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Promising news for C. diff patients! 100% of patients with LMN-201 antibiotics successfully resolved their primary infection, and 95% of participants had no recurrence within 28 days (RePreve Trial sentinel cohort results). shorturl.at/30HaG #PatientCare #Clinicaltrial
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Breaking through intranasal biologics production barriers. Our CEO Brian Finrow presents "Keep It Simple Stupid" at the @HansonWade Nasal Formulation Summit in Boston next week. Register: nasal-formulation-delivery.c… April 1-3, 2024 | Boston, MA
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Join us next Tuesday as our CEO Brian Finrow moderates Life Science Washington's expert panel on moving new drugs into the clinic. March 25, 2025 | 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM | Seattle, WA Register through @LifeScienceWA: lifesciencewa.org/events
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New piece by me here in Medical Economics (link in replies). Simple premise: in economics terms, #Cdiff is a scourge; prevention beats treating after symptoms are raging. Prevention is more socially valuable. But if that's true, why did Merck just yank Zinplava from the market?
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(To be clear, we aim for superior efficacy too—stay tuned for some upcoming news on that. 🤞)
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We're recruiting now for RePreve Clinical Trial to prove it! If you know someone who'd benefit, please send them our way! reprevetrial.org cc'ing @PeggyFund

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