Codexis To Make Household Cleaners

Redwood City, CA-based Codexis (NASDAQ: [[ticker:CDXS]]), the maker of industrial enzymes from renewable sources, said today it has formed a collaboration with Italy-based Chemtex to develop sustainable alcohols for use in household detergents. The companies said they plan to develop new detergent alcohols from cellulosic biomass sources, in hopes of taking a piece of the $6 billion global market for such home cleaning products. Financial terms of the partnership weren’t disclosed.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.