WORLD – Codexis, a leading enzyme engineering company, has received a huge sum of money from GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), a drug manufacturing giant, in a deal that will provide GSK licensing rights to utilize the CodeEvolver technology.
This milestone earning marks the advancement of the commercialization of an enzyme, generated using CodeEvolver under the licensing agreement, that is engineered to improve a key step in the manufacturing process for a currently undisclosed drug.
The milestone, which was expected in the second half of 2021, was recorded as revenue in the second quarter.
“Codexis is proud that our CodeEvolver platform continues to offer robust value to GSK,” said John Nicols, President and CEO of Codexis. “As our first platform licensing partner, it is gratifying to see the value of our relationship with GSK continue to grow. This milestone reinforces our confidence that CodeEvolver licensing backend economics will become a significant and growing long term revenue source as our platform partners currently three of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies continue to commercialize their CodeEvolver developed enzymes.”
Codexis has been leasing its enzyme technology to other company for some time now with its first significant leasing agreement taking place in the year 2015.
In this previous agreement, it received an upfront payment worth US$1M to have its CodeEvolver technology develop a novel enzyme for use in its partner’s preclinical therapeutic development program.
About CodeEvolver
CodeEvolver technology platform allows for the development of microorganisms and genes for the benefit of others to produce different variants for use in research and for commercial applications in different industries.
It is composed of multiple software tools, laboratory protocols, automated workflows, and proprietary materials that streamline directed evolution by refining and seamlessly integrating each step in the process.
CodeEvolver technology platform accelerates biologic discovery through the transformation of a starting enzyme into a novel biocatalyst or therapeutic candidate, tailored for its desired purpose.
Through a streamlined and iterative process involving library design and construction, protein expression, screening, and sequencing, the technology enables targeted high throughput screening of semi-rational libraries.
The platform’s bioinformatic tools guide efficient sampling and selection of improved variants throughout the process.
The resulting evolved variants have enhanced properties such as increased activity, specificity, expression in target hosts, and stability under desired conditions.
With this technology, Codexis has developed genomic tools, nucleic acids, and enzymatic biosensors.
For nucleic acid synthesis, their portfolio includes single and double-stranded ligases, template-dependent and independent polymerases, nucleases, and others.
Codexis is hopeful that its technology will fully utilize the genome engineering market that is projected to reach US$ 11.2 B in 2025 from US$ 5.1B in 2020, at a CAGR of 17.0 %, according to a report by Markets and Markets.
