Codexis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDXS), a leading enzyme engineering company,
today announced it has entered into a loan facility agreement with
an affiliate of Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC (Innovatus) for up
to $40 million, including $30 million upfront and access to an
additional $10 million upon achieving certain prespecified revenue
thresholds. This loan facility reinforces the strength of Codexis’
cash position, provides additional flexibility to its projected
runway through cash-flow positive around the end of 2026 and will
support the ongoing development and commercialization of the
Company’s Enzyme-Catalyzed Oligonucleotide (ECO) Synthesis™
manufacturing platform.
“The rapid technical progress we have made with
our ECO Synthesis™ manufacturing platform has exceeded our
expectations and opened the door for us to make targeted
investments in accelerating our technology’s value creation. After
a competitive process, we are excited to partner with a leading
financier like Innovatus, who truly understand the incredible
opportunity that RNAi therapeutics represents,” said Stephen Dilly,
MBBS, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Codexis. “By opening this
line of non-dilutive capital, we can prudently deploy a portion of
the funds to support our ambitions of growing up the value chain by
building out a small-scale facility for making siRNA at the lab
level—our planned ECO Synthesis™ Innovation Lab. This financing,
combined with the anticipated return to growth of our
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing business this year, gives Codexis the
time and financial cushion to realize the full potential of our ECO
Synthesis™ manufacturing platform.”
The planned ECO Synthesis™ Innovation Lab will
support both technical advancement and commercialization efforts
related to the Company’s ECO Synthesis™ manufacturing platform.
Notably, in addition to providing a strong basis for partnering
discussions and early access customer testing, this facility will
enable the Company to develop new RNAi constructs, test new
nucleotide modifications and conjugation modalities, develop tech
transfer protocols and ensure flexibility with a small-scale
footprint before potentially embarking on a full-scale GMP
facility.
“Upon examining the forecasted demand for RNAi
therapeutics, we see strong potential upside to supporting the
development of Codexis’ ECO Synthesis™ manufacturing platform,”
said Claes Ekstrom, Managing Director and Head of Life Sciences at
Innovatus. “Between the Company’s innovative technology,
foundational revenue-generating business, and highly experienced
leadership team, we’re confident in the growth potential of Codexis
and are excited to be a part of their story moving forward.”
Following the closing of the term loan
agreement, Codexis retained approximately $29 million in net
proceeds from the first tranche. The loan carries an interest-only
period of 36 months and a total term of 60 months. Additional
details regarding the financing will be included in a Current
Report on Form 8-K, which Codexis expects to file with the
Securities and Exchange Commission within four business days of the
date of this press release.
Armentum Partners acted as the Company’s
exclusive financial advisor on this transaction.
Conference Call and Webcast
Codexis will hold a conference call today
beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET. A live webcast to accompany the
conference call will be available on the Investors section of
the Company website at www.codexis.com/investors. The
conference call dial-in numbers are 877-705-2976 for domestic
callers and 201-689-8798 for international callers.
A recording of the call will be available for 48
hours beginning approximately two hours after the completion of the
call by dialing 877-660-6853 for domestic callers or 201-612-7415
for international callers. Please use the passcode 13726635 to
access the recording. A webcast replay will be available on the
Investors section of the Company website for 30 days,
beginning approximately two hours after the completion of the
call.
About the ECO Synthesis™ Platform
Ribonucleic acid (RNA) as a therapeutic modality
has gained tremendous traction in recent years with the growing
number of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines and small interfering RNA
(siRNA) candidates advancing in clinical studies. However,
large-scale production of RNA interference (RNAi) therapeutics
using traditional chemical synthesis faces complex challenges in
nucleic acid quality and quantity, as well as overall economics.
With over 450 RNAi therapies currently in clinical development,
including more than 40 assets in Phase 2 and Phase 3 clinical
trials targeting disease indications impacting millions of
patients, RNAi therapeutic demand is projected to outpace current
production capabilities by the end of the decade. Codexis’
proprietary ECO Synthesis™ technology platform is being designed to
address these scalability and cost limitations by potentially
enabling the commercial-scale manufacture of RNAi therapeutics
through an enzymatic route. The Company achieved gram-scale
synthesis in December 2023, where it demonstrated the
preparative-scale manufacture of an oligonucleotide, composed of
the modified nucleotide building blocks typically used in RNAi
therapeutics, under process-like conditions. Codexis remains on
track to initiate early access customer testing in the second half
of 2024.
About Innovatus Capital Partners,
LLC
Innovatus Capital Partners, LLC, is an
independent adviser and portfolio management firm with
approximately $1.7B in assets under
management. Innovatus adheres to an investment strategy
that identifies disruptive and growth opportunities across multiple
asset categories with a unifying theme of capital preservation,
income generation, and upside optionality. The firm has a dedicated
team of life sciences investment professionals with deep experience
in healthcare, including life sciences. Innovatus and its
principals have significant experience providing debt financing to
medical device, diagnostics, and biotechnology companies that
address unmet medical needs, improve patient outcomes, and reduce
overall healthcare expenditures. Further information can be found
at www.innovatuscp.com.
About Codexis
Codexis is a leading enzyme engineering company
leveraging its proprietary CodeEvolver® technology platform to
discover, develop and enhance novel, high-performance enzymes and
other classes of proteins. Codexis enzymes solve for real-world
challenges associated with small molecule pharmaceuticals
manufacturing and nucleic acid synthesis. The Company is currently
developing its proprietary ECO Synthesis™ platform to enable the
scaled manufacture of RNAi therapeutics through an enzymatic route.
Codexis’ unique enzymes can drive improvements such as higher
yields, reduced energy usage and waste generation, improved
efficiency in manufacturing and greater sensitivity in genomic and
diagnostic applications. For more information, visit
https://www.codexis.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release may contain forward-looking
statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act
of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act
of 1934, as amended. In some cases, you can identify
forward-looking statements by terminology such as “aim,”
“anticipate,” “assume,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,”
“could,” “design,” “due,” “estimate,” “expect,” “goal,” “intend,”
“may,” “objective,” “plan,” “positioned,” “potential,” “predict,”
“seek,” “should,” “suggest,” “target,” “on track,” “will,” “would”
and other similar expressions that are predictions of or indicate
future events and future trends, or the negative of these terms or
other comparable terminology. To the extent that statements
contained in this press release are not descriptions of historical
facts, they are forward-looking statements reflecting the current
beliefs and expectations of management, including but not limited
to statements regarding whether Codexis will be able to initiate,
and the timing of it initiating, early access customer testing of
its ECO Synthesis™ technology in 2024 and generating positive cash
flow around the end of 2026; our expectation that Codexis’
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing business will return to growth in
2024; our expected use of proceeds under our new loan facility with
Innovatus, including the planned ECO Synthesis™ Innovation Lab; the
potential of the ECO Synthesis™ platform, including its ability to
be broadly utilized and to enable commercial-scale manufacture of
RNAi therapeutics through an enzymatic route; the potential of an
enzymatic route of synthesis to drive improvements relative to
traditional chemical synthesis related to, among other things,
nucleic acid quantity and quality and overall economics; and
expectations regarding future demand for RNAi technologies. You
should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements
because they involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors that are, in some cases, beyond Codexis’ control and
that could materially affect actual results. Factors that could
materially affect actual results include, among others: Codexis’
dependence on its licensees and collaborators; if any of its
collaborators terminate their development programs under their
respective license agreements with Codexis; Codexis may need
additional capital in the future in order to expand its business;
if Codexis is unable to successfully develop new technology such as
its ECO Synthesis™ platform and dsRNA; Codexis' dependence on a
limited number of products and customers, and potential adverse
effects to Codexis’ business if its customers’ products are not
received well in the markets; if Codexis is unable to develop and
commercialize new products for its target markets; if competitors
and potential competitors who have greater resources and experience
than Codexis develop products and technologies that make Codexis’
products and technologies obsolete; if Codexis is unable to
accurately forecast financial and operational performance; and
market and economic conditions may negatively impact Codexis'
business, financial condition and share price. Additional
information about factors that could materially affect actual
results can be found in Codexis’ Annual Report on Form 10-K filed
with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on February 27,
2023 and in Codexis’ Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the
SEC on November 3, 2023, including under the caption “Risk
Factors,” and in Codexis’ other periodic reports filed with the
SEC. Codexis expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update
these forward-looking statements, except as required by law.
For More Information
Investor ContactCarrie McKim(336)
608-9706ir@codexis.com
Media ContactLauren Musto(650)
421-8205media@codexis.com
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