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Pfizer to invest $10 mn in Codexis, inks technology collaboration

Redwood CityWednesday, July 28, 2004, 08:00 Hrs  [IST]

Codexis Inc, a privately-held biosciences company, has signed a multi-year, non-exclusive collaboration focused on process research and development for pharmaceutical life cycle management of some of Pfizer Inc's small molecule human therapeutic products. In addition to the collaboration, Pfizer will make an equity investment of $10 million in Codexis, company release said. Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will have the option to acquire a non-exclusive license to certain Codexis' MolecularBreeding technologies for in-house application to its pipeline. Codexis will receive a license fee upon exercise of this option by Pfizer. Codexis applies proprietary protein and strain engineering technologies to create novel process development solutions for efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly pharmaceutical manufacturing. The company has 10 strategic alliances, including a prior agreement with Pfizer, and more than 15 products and processes in development internally and at leading worldwide life sciences companies. The multi-year agreement includes upfront payments, technology access fees and milestone payments to Codexis, which could total up to $40 million over the term of the research agreement. The collaboration involves multiple projects per year, with each product generating additional milestone payments upon US regulatory clearance, as well as ongoing commercial payments on sales. If successful, the collaboration could generate substantial additional milestone and commercial payments, the release added. "Codexis directed evolution technology has broad and direct applicability to today's pharmaceutical industry," said Alan Shaw, Codexis president and CEO. "Our proven MolecularBreeding platform, based on proprietary DNA-shuffling technology, can transform manufacturing processes for small molecule drugs. These improvements; reducing cost of goods, improving the environmental signature, releasing and potentially obviating additional capital expenditure, as well as generating new intellectual property which may extend a franchise lifecycle, each can create significant value for our partners, particularly if the technology is adopted in the pre-approval development process. We look forward to broadening our strategic contributions to Pfizer, the world's leading developer of important new therapeutics, through this expanded collaboration," he added. Codexis Inc, a majority owned subsidiary of Maxygen Inc, began operations as an independent company in 2002. Codexis provides biocatalysis and fermentation processes and products to the life sciences, chemical and allied industries.

 
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