Codexis has received notice from Dyadic International alleging that Codexis is in breach under a license agreement established by the companies on November 14, 2008. According to the notice, Dyadic intends to terminate the agreement in 60 days if the breach is not cured to Dyadic’s satisfaction. Codexis said it is considering all available remedies to protect its interests under the Dyadic license agreement.
Under the license agreement, Codexis obtained a non-exclusive license relating to Dyadic’s C1-based proprietary fungal expression technology for the production of enzymes to make products in the fields of biofuels, certain pharmaceuticals, chemicals, air treatment, water treatment and the conversion of cellulosic biomass into fermentable sugars for use in non-fuel products. Codexis agreed to pay Dyadic certain license issuance fees, milestone payments and fees based on volume of enzyme products sold or manufactured using this Dyadic technology.
Codexis currently uses this license from Dyadic solely in connection with its CodeXyme® cellulase enzymes. Codexis said it does not expect that termination of the Dyadic license would have any impact on its current pharmaceutical and CodeXol® detergent alcohol businesses.
Codexis is supposed to announced its financial earnings report this Wednesday, August 7, but has rescheduled the conference call to August 15. Dyadic is scheduled to report its second quarter earnings this Thursday, August 8.
The global enzymes market, by the way, is a profitable $3.5bn industry with annual average growth of 6%-7%, according to investment firm Jefferies & Co. Major enzyme players include Novozymes, DuPont/Danisco, DSM, BASF, Associated British Foods, Tate & Lyle, Chr. Hansen, Huber, Kerry Group, and Cargill. Aside from Codexis and Dyadic, other technology companies in this space include Verenium, evocatal, Direvo Industrial Biotechnology, Arzeda, Infinite Enzymes, etc.
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