Competitive Edge: Codexis, Inc.’s Enzyme Engineering

April 7, 2022 |

Q: Tell us about your organization. What do you do?

Codexis is a world-leading enzyme engineering company, enabling the promise of synthetic biology across multiple industries – from the sustainable manufacturing of pharmaceuticals, food and industrial products, to the expansion of life science tools and the discovery of novel biologic drug candidates.  We partner with many of the world’s most innovative companies, working on ~20 enzyme discovery projects in parallel, eventually scaling and manufacturing those enzymes in a range of expression systems.

Q: What stage of development are you?

Commercial stage

Q: What do your technologies, products or services do and accomplish – how does it (they) work, who is it (they) aimed for? 

Decades of improvement of our CodeEvolver technology platform has led to a constantly accelerating flywheel of enzyme discovery output and proprietary knowledge of the interrelationship between enzyme structures and their real-world performance attributes. We engineer enzymes to perform in ways previously unimaginable – e.g. to be stable in the human GI tract or in aggressive solvents; to selectively convert trace components, etc.

Q: Competitively, what gives your technology, product or service set an edge in cost or performance, sustainability, or any other aspect, that makes it stand out from the crowd, In short, what makes it transformative?

The CodeEvolver technology platform can often engineer thousands-fold improvement over a natural enzyme in the same time others may be able to obtain only a tens-fold improvement.  

Approximately 1900+ patents and patent applications worldwide, that cover a unique and ever-widening array of chemistries and applications.

We can commercialize an enzyme from concept to industrial supply in less than two years.

Q: What are the 3 top milestones you have accomplished in the past 3 years?

1.     CDX-7108, a therapeutic candidate co-owned with Nestlé Health Science, entered the clinic for the potential treatment of exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. 

2.     We launched four differentiated life science enzymes – a DNA ligase for genomics, an RNA polymerase for mRNA manufacturing, and a reverse transcriptase and a DNA polymerase for use in diagnostics. 

3.     We have doubled the size of the company since 2019, recruiting scientists to increase our enzyme discovery throughput, alongside commercial talent to support continuing penetration of our newer markets.

Q: What are the 3 top milestones you will accomplish in the next 3 years? 

1.     Our life science tools pipeline is strong and we plan to continue launching innovative products that elevate life science research.

2.     We will continue broadening pharmaceutical, food and industrial R&D collaborations alongside a growing pipeline of commercial products, delivering sustainable revenue growth.

3.     Our biotherapeutics pipeline will continue to mature, with our wholly owned homocystinuria and MSUD programs advancing to the clinic and other, earlier, programs entering preclinical development. 

Q. Where can I learn more about Codexis, Inc.?

Click here to visit Codexis, Inc.’s website.

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