Schering Plough collaboration making “substantial progress”

Schering-Plough has paid a milestone fee to Codexis, a biotechnology company, as part of a collaboration between the two companies that has made “substantial progress”.

Codexis and Schering-Plough joined forces to “rapidly generate” a novel biocatalytic process, with the intention of creating a key intermediate for a new compound, the details of which have not been disclosed.

The new process is designed to reduce manufacturing costs, as well as the production of environmental waste during production, resulting in a 40 to 70 per cent saving in the cost of goods, or a 35 per cent saving in capital expenditures, Codexis claims.

Alan Shaw, president and chief executive of Codexis, stated: “We are very pleased with this substantial progress in our collaboration and look forward to continuing to demonstrate the value of our technology to this important partner.”

He added that an increasing number of companies were partnering with Codexis to develop new, fast and efficient manufacturing processes.

Codexis’ other partners include Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Sandoz and Teva, among which 15 products are in development. In addition, six of the company’s processes are now in full-scale commercial production, allowing Codexis to receive royalty payments from its technology.