REDWOOD CITY, Calif., March 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Codexis, Inc., a privately held biosciences company, today announced the appointment of two senior executives for the company's newly formed enzymes and pharmaceutical intermediates business headquartered in Europe.
The business unit will be focused on providing enzyme catalyst products and pharmaceutical intermediates to the global life sciences industry. It will contain the operations of Julich Chiral Solutions GmbH, which Codexis acquired in February of 2005, as well as Codexis' pharmaceutical intermediate products. Codexis will continue to focus on applying its proprietary MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technology towards the improvement of existing small molecule drugs, either as branded or generic products.
Peter Seufer-Wasserthal, Ph.D., has been named Vice President and General Manager, Codexis Enzymes and Intermediates, reporting directly to Alan Shaw, Ph.D., Codexis' President and Chief Executive Officer. In his new position, Dr. Seufer-Wasserthal will have responsibility for management of the enzymes and pharmaceutical intermediates business for Codexis, including operations of the company's Julich Chiral Solutions unit in Germany which will be done in close interaction with Julich's Managing Director Dr. Thomas Daussmann.
Keith McKay has been appointed U.S. Director of Sales and Marketing for the enzymes and pharmaceutical intermediates business unit. He will report to Dr. Seufer-Wasserthal. Mr. McKay will be responsible for sales to the pharmaceutical and chemical industries of specialty enzyme products, fine chemicals, pharmaceutical intermediates, and process research and manufacturing services.
"We are very pleased that Peter and Keith are joining the Codexis senior management team," Dr. Shaw said. "We acquired Julich in 2005 as the core of a strategic geographic and market expansion. Through Julich, Codexis supplies enzymes and intermediates to the pharmaceutical industry, accelerating adoption of Codexis' biocatalytic approach to pharmaceutical process research and manufacturing, an area historically dominated by synthetic organic chemistry. Peter brings nearly 15 years experience in operational management and business development in the European life science industry. Keith's successful track record in marketing and business development in the pharmaceutical and fine chemical industries will be an important asset as we expand our US customer base. Both will play valuable roles as we continue to grow this important part of our company."
Dr. Seufer-Wasserthal joins Codexis after more than two decades in biocatalysis and 15 years of business development, sales and product management experience at chemical manufacturing companies throughout Europe. Most recently, he served as Vice President, Business Development, for Morphochem AG. Previously, he held senior business development and sales management positions at Evotec-OAI, Oxford-Asymmetry International (OAI, later acquired by Evotec) and Altus Biologics. He received a Ph.D. in 1990 from Technical University Graz, Austria, and did postgraduate work with Prof. Bryan Jones at the University of Toronto.
Mr. McKay comes to Codexis from senior management roles in fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals manufacturing. He was previously Director of Business Development for EMD Chemicals and Business Development Manager for DSM Biologics. Prior to that he served as a business analyst and senior scientist in vaccine engineering and technology at Merck. He received a bachelors degree in chemistry in 1992 from the University of Rhode Island.
About Codexis, Inc. and Julich
Codexis is a privately held biosciences company applying proprietary synthetic chemistry technologies to create improved versions of small molecule therapeutics. Codexis' technology enables novel process development solutions for efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly pharmaceutical manufacturing. Application of the company's proprietary protein and strain engineering platform can also generate new intellectual property opportunities for pharmaceutical manufacturers, which may extend the drug product lifecycle. Codexis has more than 12 strategic alliances, including a major collaboration with Pfizer, and more than 20 products and processes in development internally and at leading worldwide life sciences companies. Codexis, Inc. began operations as an independent company in 2002.
Julich, a wholly owned subsidiary of Codexis, was acquired in February 2005. It is one of Europe's leading providers of products and services for the biocatalytic production of chiral pharmaceutical intermediates. Through its catalog, http://www.julich.com , Julich offers a wide range of off-the-shelf specialty enzymes and chiral intermediates useful in pharmaceutical development. Julich provides customers with access to Codexis' proprietary enzymes, while Codexis focuses on using its MolecularBreeding(TM) directed molecular evolution technology to provide proprietary, customized solutions directly to leading pharmaceutical companies worldwide.
Codexis Technology Background
The Codexis MolecularBreeding(TM) protein and strain engineering technology platform creates superior biological catalysts -- either enzymes or fermentation strains -- crafted specifically for cutting-edge chemical processes that can enable pharmaceutical process development, shorten process development timelines, dramatically improve existing manufacturing processes and increase chemical development productivity. Codexis estimates that its platform technology can reduce cost of goods by 35% - 65% and capital expenditures by over 25%. In addition, this platform technology can create new patents, which can help extend the lifetime of drug products.
Codexis' partnerships draw upon the company's expertise and track record in applying its proprietary technology to high-value pharmaceutical products to improve their purity profile and reduce manufacturing time, cost and waste. Codexis has over a dozen partnerships with leading worldwide proprietary and generic pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Codexis' platform technology begins with the selection of genes or genomes with DNA sequence diversity. These gene or genomic variants are then subjected to a proprietary technique that recombines, or "shuffles," the DNA. The resulting library encoding for novel enzymes or strains is screened for those possessing desirable and improved properties. This process is repeated several times until the resulting enzymes or strains meet or exceed the target performance. Codexis is a trademark of Codexis, Inc.
Contact: Codexis, Inc. Tassos Gianakakos Sr. Vice President, Business Development T. +1-650-298-5423 F. +1-650-298-5449 tassos.gianakakos@codexis.com Media: Tricia Morsch Burns McClellan 212-213-0006 tmorsch@burnsmc.com
Codexis, Inc.CONTACT: Tassos Gianakakos, Sr. Vice President, Business Development ofCodexis, Inc., +1-650-298-5423, or fax, +1-650-298-5449, ortassos.gianakakos@codexis.com; or media, Tricia Morsch of Burns McClellan,+1-212-213-0006, or tmorsch@burnsmc.com, for Codexis, Inc.
Web site: http://www.codexis.com/
