Benzinga | Sep 9, 2021 04:12PM EDT

Codexis, Merck Amend And Extend Supply Agreement For Enzyme Used In Manufacture Of Sitagliptin

Codexis, Inc. (NASDAQ:CDXS), a leading enzyme engineering company enabling the promise of synthetic biology, announced the amendment and extension of its agreement with Merck, known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, to license and supply a proprietary enzyme used in the manufacturing process for sitagliptin, the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) in Merck's JANUVIA(r) and one of the active ingredients in Merck's JANUMET(r).



"Codexis' relationship with Merck spans more than a decade, including R&D collaboration, a CodeEvolver(r) license, and commercial product supply, and we are proud to extend our partnership even further for the supply of this proprietary, high performance enzyme for the API in JANUVIA(r)," said John Nicols, President and CEO of Codexis. "Our CodeEvolver(r) enzyme engineering platform enables Codexis and our partners to design unique enzymes with performance improvements that dramatically reduce the cost and improve the efficiency and sustainability of their API manufacturing."

Under a research and development agreement, Codexis and Merck leveraged Codexis' CodeEvolver(r) enzyme engineering platform technology to design a novel, proprietary enzyme to serve as a biocatalyst in the sitagliptin manufacturing process. The resulting enzyme streamlined the manufacturing process and increased production yield, while reducing costs and waste. In 2010 Codexis and Merck were jointly presented the annual Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the development of this novel biocatalytic method for the synthesis of sitagliptin. In 2012 Codexis and Merck entered into a supply agreement for the enzyme and in 2015 signed a mulit-year extension, which was to expire in February 2022. This subsequent extension and amendment is for the license and supply of the proprietary enzyme through December 31, 2026. The extension can be renewed for an additional 5 years upon mutual agreement by both companies.