Codexis Expands Management Team
Redwood City, CA - September 7, 2005Codexis, Inc., a privately-held biosciences company, today announced the expansion of its management team with the appointment of Gregory Rocklin as Vice President, Corporate Development and Joseph Sarret, M.D. as Corporate Counsel and Director, Business Development. Both are new positions reporting to Tassos Gianakakos, Senior Vice President, Business Development.
Mr. Rocklin will be responsible for managing the company’s small molecule product commercialization activities, which are currently focused on high-value active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) produced using Codexis’ proprietary MolecularBreeding™ directed molecular evolution technologies. In addition to bringing Codexis’ APIs to market, Mr. Rocklin will be leading the commercial efforts to expand Codexis’ API pipeline.
He joins Codexis from Lupin Pharmaceuticals, Baltimore, MD where he served as Vice President, Business Development. Lupin has primary operations in India. Previously, he was Director of Business Development for Watson Pharmaceuticals, Corona, CA, where he directed product licensing and acquisitions activities, including structuring of development agreements in the U.S., India and China. Mr. Rocklin holds a both a bachelors degree in pharmacology and a masters degree in business economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Dr. Sarret will be responsible for business development in Codexis’ pharmaceutical R&D collaborations business area and for managing the company’s legal activities. Dr. Sarret will work with the existing business development team to help accelerate the adoption of Codexis’ technology by the world’s leading innovator pharmaceutical companies, with an emphasis on its application to their respective clinical development pipelines.
He was previously an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP, where he provided legal services to life sciences companies. He also served as attending physician and later Acting Medical Director for the HIV Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Dr. Sarret is a graduate of both the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and Stanford Law School. He holds a bachelors degree in human biology from Stanford, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa.
“The addition of Joe and Greg to Codexis’ commercial team underscores the success Codexis has had to date in solving complex issues related to R&D and manufacturing productivity in both the innovator and generic pharmaceutical industries,” said Tassos Gianakakos, Senior Vice President, Business Development. “As the company continues to successfully apply its technology, our business model positions us to capture more of the value we create. Mr. Rocklin brings significant experience in the international generic pharmaceutical industry, which will be critical in directing our commercial activities in this growing market. Dr. Sarret brings a rare combination of medical, legal and business experience to Codexis and will play an important role in Codexis’ partnering activities as the world’s pharmaceutical innovators continue to increasingly embrace Codexis’ technology. We are delighted to be adding two strong, experienced individuals to our management team and look forward to working with them to achieve Codexis’ growth objectives.”
Codexis is a privately-held biosciences company applying proprietary protein and strain engineering technologies to create novel process development solutions for efficient, cost-effective and environmentally friendly pharmaceutical manufacturing. Application of the Codexis technology can also generate new intellectual property opportunities for pharmaceutical manufacturers, which may extend a product lifecycle. The company has over 12 strategic alliances with world leaders in human therapeutics and chemical production, and more than 20 products and processes in development internally and at leading worldwide life sciences companies. Codexis, Inc. began operations as an independent company in 2002. Codexis is a trademark of Codexis, Inc.
Contact:
Codexis, Inc.
Tassos Gianakakos
Sr. Vice President, Business Development
T. +1-650-298-5423
F. +1-650-298-5449
tassos.gianakakos@codexis.com