US protein engineering company Codexis has signed a second multi-year supply agreement with multinational food ingredients company Tate & Lyle to supply a proprietary enzyme. The deal strengthens the previous agreement that was signed last December.

This latest pact sees Codexis apply its CodeEvolver protein engineering platform technology to research and develop novel enzymes in support of Tate & Lyle’s new food ingredients. Under the terms of the agreement, Codexis will receive a payment from Tate & Lyle during the second quarter for enzyme technology improvements that the US firm had previously developed independently. Codexis will also be eligible to receive certain R&D service fees and milestone payments over the next two to three years.

“This agreement also highlights our strategy to enhance shareholder returns by developing novel protein technology on our own account and subsequently using that de-risked technology as a base to create enhanced customer partnerships. We successfully employed this strategy here with Tate & Lyle and are poised to do so similarly with our diagnostics enzymes and novel biotherapeutics pipeline,” said John Nicols, president and CEO of Codexis.

Michael Harrison, senior vice president of new product development at Tate & Lyle, added that the company had developed a highly productive technical partnership over the past four years with Codexis, which it viewed as an extension to its internal R&D programs.

The CodeEvolver platform enables the rapid development of custom-designed enzymes that are highly optimized for a specific function. It is covered by around 200 patents, with more applications pending worldwide.