NEW YORK – Codexis and Alphazyme announced on Monday a collaboration agreement for the production and comarketing of enzymes for life science and diagnostic applications.
Under the terms of the agreement, Alphazyme will be the exclusive manufacturer of three Codexis-developed enzymes: a high-fidelity DNA polymerase, an evolved T7 RNA polymerase for manufacturing of RNA therapeutics and vaccines, and a reverse transcriptase. Alphazyme will also gain comarketing rights to certain Codexis enzymes. The firms will promote and sell these enzymes in the life science and diagnostic markets, and they plan to add more products over time.
Financial and other details of the agreement were not disclosed.
"We are delighted to partner with the experienced team at Alphazyme to launch our high fidelity DNA polymerase into the NGS market, alongside the rapid development of a reverse transcriptase for viral diagnostics and the commercialization of our evolved T7 RNA polymerase for efficient mRNA production," Codexis President and CEO John Nicols said in a statement. "In partnership with Alphazyme, Codexis can play a key role in providing solutions to critical molecular biology challenges across a number of applied markets. These challenges have never been more apparent, or in need of resolution, than they are today."
Redwood City, California-based Codexis engineers proteins using a proprietary CodeEvolver platform for use in several industries, including pharmaceutical and chemical manufacturing and industrial enzyme production.
In December 2019, Codexis licensed its EvoT4 DNA ligase enzyme to Roche for use in next-generation sequencing library preparation kits.
In May, Jupiter, Florida-based Alphazyme licensed Dyadic International's C1 Gene expression platform for enzyme production.