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news.Codexis and Merck have jointly developed an enzyme-based method for the production of boceprevir, an active ingredient in Merck's victrelis capsules.
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Codexis Pharmaceuticals senior vice president Peter Seufer-Wasserthal said the Codexis technology has delivered solid results including the reduction in production costs for boceprevir.
Codexis employed its proprietary CodeEvolver directed evolution technology to develop a custom enzyme that can be used in the commercial scale manufacturing of the boceprevir intermediate.
The new method increased chemical intermediate yield 150% over the previous process, and reduced raw material use by 60%, water use by 61% and overall process waste by 63%, according to the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Merck Research Laboratories Discovery and Preclinical Sciences senior vice president Richard Tillyer said: "Enzymatic based methods can offer a biodegradable and renewable alternative to currently employed methods."