eXoZymes Advancing Commercial Readiness With Profound Production Metrics on Initial NCT Pilot Run

Rhea-AI Summary

eXoZymes (NASDAQ:EXOZ) reported results from a 100-liter pilot run producing N-trans-caffeoyltyramine (NCT): ~99% reaction conversion, 91% process recovery, 90% isolated yield, 535 grams isolated, and 99.6% pharma-grade purity. The run was executed by Cayman Chemical, demonstrating protocol transferability and improved reaction performance at larger scale. eXoZymes plans 2026 work to establish commercial supply chains, expand volumes, form strategic partnerships, and finalize technology-transfer packages for commercial manufacturing and formulation development.

Positive

• Reaction conversion approximately 99%
• Process recovery 91% and isolated yield 90% yielding 535 g of NCT
• Final product purity measured at 99.6% (pharma-grade)
• Successful external tech transfer to Cayman Chemical demonstrating operational robustness

Negative

• Commercial NCT supply chain and sustainable economics are still under development for 2026
• Scaling and efficiency improvements remain a stated near-term focus before large-scale commercialization

Key Figures

Reaction conversion: 99% Process recovery: 91% Isolated yield: 90% +5 more

8 metrics

Reaction conversion 99% Initial 100-liter NCT pilot run

Process recovery 91% End-to-end NCT pilot production process

Isolated yield 90% Isolated NCT from 100-liter pilot run

NCT produced 535 grams Isolated NCT at pharma-grade purity from pilot

Product purity 99.6% Pharma-grade NCT purity after isolation and analysis

Pilot scale 100 liters Cell-free NCT production run with external partner

Shelf registration size $50,000,000 New S-3 mixed shelf filed 2026-01-16

Q3 2025 net loss $2,286,991 Quarter ended September 30, 2025 (Form 10-Q)

Market Reality Check

Price: $10.19 Vol: Volume 904 is well below ...

low vol

$10.19 Last Close

Volume Volume 904 is well below the 20-day average 4,146 (relative volume 0.22). low

Technical Price 10.19 is trading below the 200-day MA 12.24, reflecting a weaker longer-term trend.

Peers on Argus

EXOZ was down 1.74% while peers showed mixed moves: ADAG up 5.82%, TCRX down 3.7...

EXOZ was down 1.74% while peers showed mixed moves: ADAG up 5.82%, TCRX down 3.7%, VTGN down 4.21%, FATE down 0.83%, indicating stock-specific trading rather than a unified sector move.

Historical Context

5 past events · Latest: Dec 11 (Positive)

Pattern 5 events

Date	Event	Sentiment	Move	Catalyst
Dec 11	NCT scale-up data	Positive	-0.7%	Announced 100× NCT production scale-up with >99% feedstock conversion under partner ops.
Nov 13	Q3 2025 update	Neutral	-0.6%	Scheduled Q3 2025 webinar covering results, commercialization progress, hires, and milestones.
Nov 13	Leadership changes	Neutral	-0.6%	Appointed co-founder as CSO and named new chief of staff to support scaling efforts.
Nov 10	Earnings webinar plan	Neutral	+14.3%	Announced scheduling of Third Quarter 2025 update webinar with management Q&A for investors.
Oct 30	Conference participation	Positive	+13.9%	CEO featured on AI in life sciences panel, highlighting exozyme platform and NCT positioning.

Pattern Detected

News flow has been mostly operational or corporate and price has usually moved in the same direction as the perceived tone, with one notable selloff on a positive NCT scale-up update.

Recent Company History

Over the last few months, eXoZymes has focused on NCT and platform validation. On Oct 30, 2025, it highlighted its AI‑engineered exozymes and NCT at an AI life‑sciences conference, with a double‑digit positive move. Multiple Nov 13, 2025 updates covered Q3 results, strategy, and leadership changes, alongside a 10-Q showing operating losses and going‑concern language. On Dec 11, 2025, the company announced a 100× NCT scale‑up. Today’s pilot‑run data extends that narrative by adding full downstream performance metrics at 100‑liter scale and external tech transfer.

Regulatory & Risk Context

Active S-3 Shelf · $50,000,000

Shelf Active

Active S-3 Shelf Registration 2026-01-16

$50,000,000 registered capacity

An effective S-3 shelf dated 2026-01-16 allows eXoZymes to issue up to $50,000,000 of mixed securities over time. A 424B2 prospectus supplement on 2026-01-26 indicates the shelf has already been tapped, and future offerings under this program could be dilutive to existing shareholders.

Market Pulse Summary

This announcement details a 100‑liter NCT pilot run achieving 99% conversion, 91% process recovery, ...

Analysis

This announcement details a 100‑liter NCT pilot run achieving 99% conversion, 91% process recovery, and 99.6% purity, all under an external partner’s operation, which supports scalability and tech‑transferability for future commercialization. Recent filings show continued operating losses and a new $50,000,000 shelf registration that has already been used via a 424B2 supplement. Investors may watch for future financing activity, additional scale‑up data, and concrete commercial partnerships as the NCT supply chain is built out.

Key Terms

biomanufacturing, in-vitro, preclinical

3 terms

biomanufacturing technical

"a more scalable biomanufacturing paradigm compared to existing approaches."

Making medicines, vaccines and other products using living cells or biological systems instead of purely chemical processes; it is the industrial-scale “cooking” of biological ingredients into finished medical products. Investors care because biomanufacturing determines how quickly and cheaply a company can deliver therapies, meet demand, pass regulatory checks and protect earnings—like a bakery’s ovens and recipes deciding how much bread it can sell and at what cost.

in-vitro medical

"different activity profiles from NCT in certain in-vitro and preclinical research settings..."

In-vitro means a laboratory test or experiment done outside a living organism, typically in a test tube, petri dish, or similar container. For investors, in-vitro results are early-stage evidence that a compound or process can work under controlled lab conditions; they can spark interest and influence valuation but carry higher uncertainty because success in a dish does not guarantee safety or effectiveness in people.

preclinical medical

"different activity profiles from NCT in certain in-vitro and preclinical research settings..."

Preclinical describes the stage of drug or medical-product development when researchers test a candidate in the lab and in animals to see if it is safe, reaches intended targets, and shows basic effectiveness before any human trials begin. For investors, preclinical status signals an early, higher‑risk opportunity where positive lab results can increase value but significant work, time, and regulatory hurdles remain — like proofing a prototype in a workshop before road testing.

AI-generated analysis. Not financial advice.

• N-trans-caffeoyltyramine (NCT) is an interesting naturally occurring compound that has attracted scientific attention in exploratory studies related to lipid metabolism and energy utilization pathways.

• The production was executed by an external partner under pilot-scale conditions using standardized protocols.

• The pilot run achieved approximately 99% reaction conversion, 90% isolated yield, and 535 grams of NCT at 99.6% pharma-grade purity.

• Reaction performance was observed to improve at increased operating scale.

• High-purity NCT now available for formulation development with commercial partners.

LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESS Newswire / January 29, 2026 / Today, eXoZymes Inc. (NASDAQ:EXOZ) ("eXoZymes") - a pioneer of AI-enhanced enzymes that can transform sustainable feedstock into nutraceuticals and new medicines - reported detailed downstream performance results from its recently completed 100-liter pilot production run of NCT. The results expand upon the previously announced 100× scale-up milestone and provide new data demonstrating manufacturability, material recovery, and product quality at commercially relevant scale.

Following completion of the pilot run and product isolation and purification, eXoZymes achieved approximately 99% reaction conversion, 91% process- recovery, and a 90% isolated yield, resulting in 535 grams of isolated NCT. Final product purity was measured at 99.6%, based on post-isolation analytical characterization. Together, these metrics provide a full, end-to-end view of process performance spanning reaction, isolation, and purification.

"What makes this initial NCT pilot run profound is how counter to conventional experience these results are. In most biological systems, performance typically degrades as you scale - reactions become harder to control, yields drop, and variability increases. With our AI-enhanced enzymes - exozymes - we see the opposite trend." states co-founder of eXoZymes and VP of Development, Paul Opgenorth, PhD, and continues, "At very small laboratory scale, where cell-free reactions are usually developed and optimized, performance can actually be the weakest. It improves at the one-liter scale, and this scaled run at 100 liters further reinforces that the system benefits from operating at larger volumes. Seeing that behavior carry through to high recovery, isolated yield, and pharma-grade purity supports that exozymes represent a fundamentally different and more scalable biomanufacturing paradigm compared to existing approaches."

Using a NCT tech transfer package, the pilot production was executed by Cayman Chemical, which independently operated the cell-free reaction, downstream processing, isolation, and analytical confirmation. This marks the first time the exozyme-based biomanufacturing process has been run end-to-end by an external partner, demonstrating protocol transferability and operational robustness.

Team Lead of Biosolutions and R&D Services, Adrian Brückner, PhD, adds, "What stood out to me in this run was not just the impressive final performance numbers, but how straightforward and reliable the process proved to be under real operating conditions. The reaction was executed using a written, step-by-step protocol by an external team, and it performed exactly as intended. From a process perspective, that level of consistency - combined with high recovery, isolated yield, and purity at this scale - gives us confidence that the system is not only scalable, but operationally robust and well suited for continued manufacturing development. Importantly, this successful production of more than half a kilogram of pharma-grade purity NCT means that we're now ready to share formulation samples with relevant partners."

NCT has historically been difficult to supply at scale in purified form. Cell-based production methods commonly co-produce N-trans-feruloyltyramine (NFT), a closely related compound that has been reported in the scientific literature to exhibit different activity profiles from NCT in certain in-vitro and preclinical research settings, which can complicate interpretation when both compounds are present. Because of their close structural similarity, separating NFT from NCT is also costly. The exozyme-based process avoids these limitations, enabling direct production of highly pure NCT without co-production challenges.

Looking ahead, eXoZymes expects 2026 to focus on establishing a commercial NCT supply chain, expanding production volumes, forming strategic partnerships, and finalizing commercial technology-transfer packages. These efforts are expected to focus on improving manufacturing efficiency and scalability as eXoZymes and NCTx evaluate pathways toward sustainable commercial economics.

Formulation can be shipped to partners
With isolated high-purity NCT now produced at pilot scale, eXoZymes is actively engaging with partners interested in formulation development, product validation, and application-specific testing. The availability of high-purity material enables partners to move beyond feasibility studies and into hands-on evaluation under relevant conditions. Companies seeking to explore potential use cases, assess performance, or initiate collaborative development discussions are invited to contact eXoZymes to request samples and discuss next steps, right here:
https://exozymes.com/partners

About Cayman
Cayman Chemical helps make research possible by providing products and services to scientists worldwide. Cayman's collection includes high-quality biochemicals, assay kits, antibodies, and proteins, empowering researchers to understand the biological mechanisms of health and disease and develop new therapies. Cayman's scientists are experts in the synthesis, purification, and characterization of biochemicals ranging from small drug-like heterocycles to complex biolipids, and fatty acids, and is highly skilled in all aspects of assay and antibody development, protein expression, crystallization, and structure determination. In addition, Cayman offers a wide range of analytical services using LC-MS/MS, HPLC, GC, and many other techniques. Cayman performs generic drug development and production in both Ann Arbor, Michigan and Neratovice, Czech Republic.

Learn more at www.caymanchem.com

About eXoZymes
Founded in 2019, the company has developed a biomanufacturing platform that - as a historic first - offers the tools and insights to design, engineer, control and optimize nature's own natural processes to produce highly valuable natural products, via a commercially scalable, sustainable, and eco-friendly alternative: exozymes.

Exozymes are advanced enzymes enhanced through AI and bioengineering to thrive in a bioreactor without using living cells. Exozymes can replace toxic petrochemical processes and inefficient biochemical extraction with sustainable and scalable biosolutions that transform biomass into essential chemicals, nutraceuticals and medicines.

By freeing enzyme-driven chemical reactions from the limitations imposed by cells, exozyme biosolutions eliminate the scaling bottleneck that has hampered commercial success in the synthetic biology (SynBio) space, making exozymes the next generation of biomanufacturing.

While the company, eXoZymes Inc., has introduced "exozymes" as a scientific concept, they are not trademarking the concept, as they view it as a new nomenclature for wide adoption for this next generation of biomanufacturing that eXoZymes aims to pioneer and be the market leader of.

Learn more at exozymes.com

eXoZymes Safe Harbor
This press release includes forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe the company's future plans, strategies and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as "believe," "expect," "may," "will," "should," "would," "could," "seek," "intend," "plan," "goal," "project," "estimate," "anticipate," "strategy," "future," "likely," "potential," or other comparable terms, although not all forward-looking statements contain these identifying words. All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release regarding the company's strategies, prospects, financial condition, operations, costs, plans and objectives are forward-looking statements. Actual results could differ materially for a variety of reasons. You should carefully consider the risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" section of eXoZymes' quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, annual reports on Form 10-K, and other documents filed by eXoZymes from time to time by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These filings identify and address important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and eXoZymes assumes no obligation and does not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. eXoZymes does not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.

eXoZymes contact
Lasse Görlitz, VP of Communications
(858) 319-7135
press@exozymes.com

https://www.linkedin.com/company/exozymes
https://x.com/exozymes
https://www.youtube.com/@exozymes

SOURCE: eXoZymes

View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire

FAQ

What were the key production metrics from eXoZymes' 100-liter NCT pilot run (EXOZ) on January 29, 2026?

The pilot run delivered ~99% reaction conversion, 91% process recovery, a 90% isolated yield, and 535 g of NCT at 99.6% purity. According to the company, these metrics reflect end-to-end reaction, isolation, and purification performance at pilot scale.

Who performed the pilot production of NCT for eXoZymes (EXOZ) and what does that imply for tech transferability?

The pilot run was executed by Cayman Chemical using the company's tech transfer package, showing external protocol transferability. According to the company, the external run reproduced high recovery, yield, and purity under real operating conditions, indicating operational robustness.

How much pharma-grade NCT did eXoZymes (EXOZ) produce and is it available for partners?

eXoZymes produced 535 grams of NCT at 99.6% pharma-grade purity, now available for formulation development. According to the company, partners can request samples for product validation and application-specific testing.

What scale behavior did eXoZymes (EXOZ) report for exozyme-based reactions during the 100 L pilot run?

Performance improved with increased operating scale, contrary to typical biological systems, according to the company. The 100 L run reinforced better control, higher yields, and lower variability compared with smaller laboratory-scale reactions.

What are eXoZymes' (EXOZ) next steps for NCT commercialization in 2026?

eXoZymes plans to establish a commercial NCT supply chain, expand production volumes, form strategic partnerships, and finalize technology-transfer packages. According to the company, efforts will emphasize improving manufacturing efficiency and scalability toward sustainable commercial economics.