Codexis wins green award from US Environmental Protection Agency
US-based Codexis, a privately-held biotechnology company, has won a 2006 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its biocatalysts technology used to produce the key chiral building block for Atorvastatin, the active ingredient in the blockbuster Lipitor.
US-based Codexis, a privately-held biotechnology company, has won a 2006 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for its biocatalysts technology used to produce the key chiral building block for Atorvastatin, the active ingredient in the blockbuster Lipitor.
Competing against nominations from both large and small companies, Codexis won in the category of 'Greener Reaction Conditions.' The award was presented at the National Academy of Sciences, during the 10th Annual Green Chemistry and Engineering Conference.
The company's green-by-design HN process increases yield and is more efficient and kinder to the environment in comparison to older methods, which are energy-intensive and involve reaction steps that generate by-products and significantly limit yield.
Advantages of the HN process include:
- Reduction of waste and by-products formation and decrease in the use of solvents
- Avoidance of the use of fossil fuel-derived hydrogen gas
- Reduced requirement for purification equipment
- Decreased manufacturing costs
- On a biocatalyst basis, enzymes evolved through Codexis' technology have improved the volumetric productivity of one reaction by 100-fold, and that of another reaction by 4000-fold.
The Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Awards Program provides national recognition of outstanding chemical technologies that incorporate the principles of green chemistry into chemical design, manufacture, and use, and that can be used by industry in achieving their pollution prevention goals.