Codexis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDXS), a leading enzyme engineering company,
today announced the appointment of Masad Damha, PhD, and Jim
Lalonde, PhD, to the Company’s Strategic Advisory Board (SAB),
joining John Maraganore, PhD, the founder and former Chief
Executive Officer of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals. This board is now
comprised of experts across oligonucleotide synthesis and
manufacturing and was established to help guide the Company’s
strategic direction, providing critical insights to inform the
continued development of Codexis’ ECO Synthesis™ manufacturing
platform.
“We are thrilled to have Masad and Jim lend
their decades of experience in oligonucleotide research and
development to our Strategic Advisory Board,” said Stefan Lutz,
PhD, Senior Vice President of Research at Codexis. “We now have
Board representation across research, development, manufacturing,
and commercialization, and with the forthcoming addition of our ECO
Synthesis™ Innovation Lab at our headquarters, we’re confident that
we’ll continue to see rapid progress toward our anticipated
technical milestones and remain on track to initiate early access
customer testing in the second half of this year.”
Masad Damha, PhD, is the Distinguished James
McGill Professor at McGill University. His research has been
instrumental in the development of new therapeutic drugs based on
RNA targeting and gene editing, and he has authored more than 200
publications. Dr. Damha is a co-founder of Anagenis, Inc., a
start-up with proprietary antisense technologies (ANA and FANA).
His FANA technology is being applied by multiple research
laboratories and industries to assess and develop modified
oligonucleotides against several biological targets, including
cancer and infectious diseases. Dr. Damha has served as the
President of both the International Society of Nucleosides,
Nucleotides and Nucleic Acids and the Oligonucleotide Therapeutic
Society, and currently serves on the Editorial Board of the journal
Nucleic Acids Therapeutics. He received both his PhD and BSc in
Organic Chemistry from McGill University.
“As someone who has witnessed exciting
developments in our field, this opportunity to guide the
development of an enzymatic route of synthesis was one I could not
pass up. I am honored to be joining the innovative team at Codexis
and help usher in a new wave of technology, potentially alleviating
forthcoming challenges as the demand for RNA-based therapeutics
increases through the back half of the decade,” said Dr. Damha.
Jim Lalonde, PhD, is a biotechnology consultant
for start-up companies in enzyme engineering and biotechnology.
Presently, Dr. Lalonde serves as Chairman of the Board of Directors
at Willow Biosciences and as a Scientific Advisory Board member at
Bota Biosciences, bitBiome, Curie Co. and Invizyne. Most recently,
Dr. Lalonde served as the head of the Microbial Digital Genome
Engineering Business at Inscripta. Prior to Inscripta, he spent
nearly 15 years at Codexis, culminating in the role of Senior Vice
President of Research and Development, where he oversaw the
development of more than 50 enzymes for biotherapeutics, drug
manufacturing, nutrition and molecular diagnostics applications.
Earlier in his career, Dr. Lalonde held leadership roles in
biocatalysis and chemical development at Altus Biologics and in
scientific research at Vista Chemical Company. Dr. Lalonde earned a
PhD in Organic Chemistry from Texas A&M University and a BS in
Chemistry from Lakehead University.
Dr. Lalonde noted, “It’s truly exciting to be
reuniting with the team at Codexis to help advance this promising
platform built on the backbone of CodeEvolver® technology, which I
was fortunate to oversee development of for 15 years. I have seen
Codexis’ masterful enzyme engineering capabilities first-hand, and
I am thrilled to be part of this mission to transform the
manufacture of these therapeutics given their potential to alter
the treatment paradigms for millions of patients globally.”
More information about Codexis’ SAB can be found
on the About Us section of the Company’s corporate website, located
here.
About the ECO Synthesis™ Manufacturing
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™ manufacturing 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 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 contains 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, and the
timing of it entering pre-commercial testing of its ECO Synthesis™
manufacturing platform with select customers in 2024; the potential
of the ECO Synthesis™ platform, including its ability to drive
improvements relative to traditional chemical synthesis related to
scalability, cost limitations, waste and overall economics, and it
providing an opportunity for Codexis to efficiently capture
meaningful market share; expectations regarding Codexis’ planned
ECO Synthesis™ Innovation Lab; and expectations regarding the
potential of and future demand for RNAi therapeutics. 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
Photos accompanying this announcement are
available at:
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/50a8fdca-ff3a-4f61-9ab3-c22088f5cc5b
https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f98a2bb9-d3fa-40bf-841c-6da5b8da18ac
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