The Dishman Group has announced the formation of a strategic alliance with Codexis, a California-based biotechnology company. This strategic partnership covers the use of Codexis' proprietary enzymatic biocatalysis technology for the manufacture of building blocks, intermediates and APIs for innovator pharmaceutical companies.

Dishman will be a preferred contract manufacturer for Codexis and will be able to offer the technology to its own customers. In addition, the companies will work exclusively on certain select accounts.

Codexis offers a wide selection of enzymes for the pharmaceutical synthesis of chiral compounds. With the majority of today's drugs containing at least one chiral center, this technology is directed at the very heart of pharmaceutical manufacture. In comparison to traditional chemical synthesis, this technology offers a number of significant advantages: cost reduction compared with conventional complex transformations as a result of telescoped processes, increased specificity gives improved yields and often improved impurity profiles, significant reduction in environmental impact through reduce use of organic solvents and reduced energy processes.

Editor's note: For more on chiral technologies, click here and here.