Instead of using biological tools likeenzymes and yeast to transform sugars, the company uses chemistry. (For a quick primer on biofuel technologies, click here.) Catalysts remove the oxygen from the sugars and rearrange the hydrogen and carbon atoms into fuel.
Zetia and Vytorin are for patients who don't get enough benefit from these other drugs, or who can't take high doses of statins because of side effects like achiness or elevated liver enzymes.
The most common adverse reactions in the clinical trial included injection site reactions, flu-like symptoms, nausea, headache and elevations in liver enzymes (serum transaminases).
When they mixed their artificial biochemicals (including the unnatural amino acid) with a bacterial extract that contained ribosomes and all the appropriate enzymes, Dr Hirao and Dr Yokoyama found that the unnatural additions were treated just like their natural analogues.
Enzymes can also replace less desirable ingredients in detergent formulas, from potentially toxic chemicals to expensive petrochemical ingredients like surfactants.