US protein engineering company Codexis is collaborating with compatriot firm Alphazyme on the production and marketing of enzymes for life science applications. The companies have agreed to launch three products to prospective customers during the second and third quarters of this year.

The first enzyme is a DNA polymerase, following up on Codexis’ previously announced high-performance DNA ligase, which was exclusively licensed to Roche in late 2019. The DNA polymerase has been engineered to deliver high fidelity and uniformity of coverage, providing an accurate and representative DNA diagnostic result.

The second is an evolved T7 RNA polymerase for the efficient manufacture and capping of messenger RNA therapeutics and vaccines. The third enzyme is a reverse transcriptase, a critical component in RNA-directed, point-of-care viral diagnostics. These latter two enzymes are expected to address needs associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Leveraging the power of Codexis’ CodeEvolver platform, we can disrupt long-standing technical bottlenecks in molecular biology,” said Alphazyme CEO Chris Benoit. “The high fidelity DNA polymerase is a perfect example of how the combination of world-class enzyme engineering, coupled with innovative manufacturing and formulation expertise, can advance genome biology.

The companies said the partnership will leverage Alphazyme’s experience and industry knowledge to accelerate the market introduction of Codexis’ portfolio of enzymes, while also providing the Florida-based company with exclusive manufacturing and co-marketing rights to certain CodeEvolver-improved enzymes. Both firms will jointly promote and sell the enzymes to the life science and diagnostic markets.

Codexis has developed its proprietary CodeEvolver platform to enable the rapid development of highly optimized proteins, custom-designed for specific applications.

“In partnership with Alphazyme, Codexis can play a key role in providing solutions to critical molecular biology challenges across a number of applied markets. These challenges have never been more apparent, or in need of resolution, than they are today,” added John Nicols, president and CEO of Codexis.

In March, Codexis signed a collaboration and license deal with Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical for the research and development of therapies for treating rare genetic disorders.

Codexis will use its CodeEvolver technology to generate novel gene sequences encoding protein variants tailored to enhance efficacy.