BioWorld® - Medical Device Daily

BioWorld Industrial Biotechnology StatReport: Immediate and Comprehensive Industry Information
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: Codexis' technology platforms can rapidly generate biocatalysts with desired
commercial properties. The biocatalysts usually fall into two categories:
enzymes and fermentation strains. The technology platforms used to
develop the biocatalysts include MolecularBreeding directed evolution and
WGShuffling strain development. The technologies can be used to:
-Develop low-cost, efficient catalysts with improved performance for the
synthesis of complex molecules
-Develop improved chemical production organisms in less than the typical
process development time
-Develop proprietary syntheses of high-value chemicals by integrating
chemistry and biology in new ways
-Develop alternative synthesis technologies and intellectual property for use
by pharmaceutical and generic companies in life cycle management, can be
used to create new patents
-Demonstrate the validity of the technology for multiple applications at
relevant commercial scale
PRODUCTS ON MARKET: ThoroughBred biocatalysts
ThoroughBred cell lines
Active pharmaceutical ingredients
PRODUCTS IN DEVELOPMENT: Name Status
More than 15 products and processes in
the pipeline, with two products in advanced
development
Codon Devices
One Kendall Square, Building 300, Third Floor
Cambridge MA 02139, US
Phone: (617) 995-7999; Fax: (617) 995-7970
Web: www.codondevices.com
E-mail: info@codondevices.com
KEY PERSONNEL: Noubar Afeyan; Chairman
John Danner; CEO and President
Brian Baynes; CSO
Craig D. Muir; Sr. VP, Technical Operations
Jennifer Camacho; VP, Intellectual Property and Chief Patent Counsel
Michael J. Fitzpatrick; VP, Sales
EMPLOYEES: 10 employees
HISTORY: Founded in 2004
STOCK-FINANCIAL HISTORY: Privately held
PRINCIPAL INVESTORS: Flagship Ventures
Alloy Ventures
Kleiner Perkins
Vinod Khosla
BUSINESS STRATEGY: Provide engineered devices for molecular biology research, improve cell
engineering for the production of high value chemicals and engineer
biotherapeutics
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT: Molecular biology: Construction of comprehensive sets of genetic reagents
for basic research and development and in the area of structural/functional
genomics, the construction of codon optimized, expression-ready clones
and designed variants for protein studies
Pharmaceutical: Improved therapeutic protein development, such as
engineering therapeutic proteins to improve properties such as stability,
potency, binding affinity and immunogenicity; natural and engineered
therapeutic production, such as rapidly developing cell lines to explore
biosynthetic pathways for improved performance and cost; rapid response
vaccines, such as rapidly obtaining putative antigen genes, optionally
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