Pfizer made an upfront payment of $8 million to Codex DNA. Additionally, the latter is eligible for milestone payments of up to $90 million in clinical milestone payments.
Shares of Codex DNA soared nearly 40% Wednesday and continued to climb in pre-market trading Thursday morning following news of the company’s collaboration with Pfizer to expand on the capabilities of its proprietary BioXP gene synthesis platform.
Codex DNA announced the partnership in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The two companies forged the agreement Dec. 22. Pfizer and Codex agreed to improve the capabilities of the BioXP technology and then use the boosted competencies to produce new materials for the pharma giant’s research and development programs. Codex DNA granted Pfizer a non-exclusive, worldwide license to this improved platform.
According to San Diego-based Codex DNA, the BioXP platform “consolidates, automates, and optimizes the entire synthesis, cloning, and amplification workflow.” Through this, the technology “delivers virtually error-free synthesis of DNA/RNA at scale within days and hours instead of weeks or months.” The company noted that researchers across the globe are using the BioXP platform to accelerate the design-build-test paradigm for drug discovery. The platform has applications in precision medicine, biologics and vaccine development, as well as with genome editing and cell and gene therapies, the company said.
In its regulatory filing, Codex DNA did not elaborate on the types of materials that Pfizer hopes to develop through the partnership. Per the terms of the collaboration agreement, Codex DNA will own the improved BioXP platform and associated intellectual property rights. In turn, Pfizer will own the potential R&D materials that it can use in its programs, as well as the IP rights for them, Codex noted in the filing. Pfizer will have the sole right and responsibility for the development, manufacture and commercialization of all the products, Codex added.
Under the financial terms of the deal, Pfizer made an upfront payment of $8 million to Codex DNA. Additionally, the latter is eligible for milestone payments of up to $90 million in clinical milestone payments. The company also stands to gain up to $240 million in potential commercial milestones, depending on a threshold of net sales, according to the filing. Pfizer will also pay Codex DNA escalating royalties.
For Codex DNA, the Pfizer deal comes about a month after the company acquired privately-held Eton Bioscience for $13 million. Eton Bioscience specializes in synthetic biology products and services, including DNA sequencing and oligo synthesis. Eton also commercializes DNA prep services and products such as antibodies, peptides and metabolism assay kits. The company said the acquisition will accelerate the development of the BioXP growth strategy within the synthetic biology market.
“This acquisition will allow our combined company to increase its commercial reach, deliver more robust services with broader customer applications, improve the quality and cost of certain raw materials, and support our highly strategic enzymatic DNA synthesis product development program,” Codex DNA Chief Executive Officer Todd R. Nelson said in a statement.
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