Health & Fitness
Health and Fitness
Health and Fitness
Fri, February 6, 2009
Thu, February 5, 2009 Dyax Announces Expansion of Antibody Discovery Collaboration with Biogen Idec
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ:DYAX) announced today that they have expanded their antibody funded research and library license agreement with Biogen Idec (NASDAQ:BIIB) to include the discovery of additional antibody products identified using Dyax's proprietary drug discovery technology, phage display.
Dyax has utilized phage display to generate on behalf of Biogen Idec high affinity, fully human antibody product candidates, including BIIB-022, currently in Phase 1 clinical trials for oncology, and one additional product candidate targeting LINGO-1 for multiple sclerosis moving into the clinic. Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Dyax has guaranteed a minimum of ten additional product licenses to Biogen Idec. Additionally, Dyax has granted Biogen Idec a non-exclusive license to its antibody libraries and will conduct antibody discovery funded research over a three-year period. In exchange, Dyax will receive a $5 million upfront fee and guaranteed research funding, and is eligible to receive $85 million in development and sales milestones as well as royalties for each antibody product commercialized by Biogen Idec using Dyax's technology.
"Biogen Idec is a leader in the development and commercialization of innovative therapies, and this agreement reflects how Dyax's phage display technology has become an increasingly important and validated drug discovery platform," remarked Gustav A. Christensen, President and CEO of Dyax Corp. "We look forward to continuing our collaboration with Biogen Idec generating value for both companies through the discovery of innovative therapeutic antibodies."
About Dyax's Phage Display
Dyax's proprietary drug discovery platform, phage display, provides an efficient means to identify compounds that interact with a wide array of therapeutic targets. Dyax's discovery capabilities have been further enhanced through automation, which has enabled the Company to evaluate a large number of molecules binding to each target. In this way, Dyax is able to rapidly identify and select a specific antibody, peptide or small protein with the desired biochemical and biological characteristics. Dyax's state-of-the-art antibody phage display libraries allows for the rapid isolation of fully human target-specific antibodies from a library of billions of unique antibodies. These extensive libraries are screened using in vitro selection strategies that are tailored to increase the yield of lead candidates with the desired therapeutic properties.1,2
About Dyax
Dyax is focused on advancing novel biotherapeutics for unmet medical needs, with an emphasis on oncology and inflammatory indications. Dyax utilizes its proprietary drug discovery technology to identify antibody, small protein and peptide compounds for clinical development. Dyax's lead product candidate is DX-88 (ecallantide), a recombinant small protein that is currently being evaluated for its therapeutic potential in two separate indications. On November 21, 2008, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) accepted for filing the Company's Biologics License Application for approval of DX-88 for the treatment of hereditary angioedema (HAE) and designated the application for Priority Review. Based on this designation, the FDA Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA) target action date is March 23, 2009. DX-88 has orphan drug designation in the U.S. and E.U., as well as Fast Track designation in the U.S., for the treatment of acute attacks of HAE. Additionally, DX-88 is being evaluated for the prevention of blood loss during on-pump cardiothoracic surgery (CTS) through its partner, Cubist Pharmaceuticals. Dyax licensed to Cubist the intravenous formulation of DX-88 for surgical indications in North America and Europe. DX-88 and other compounds in Dyax's pipeline were identified using its patented phage display technology, which rapidly selects compounds that bind with high affinity and specificity to therapeutic targets. Dyax leverages this technology broadly with over 70 revenue generating licenses and collaborations for therapeutic discovery, as well as in non-core areas such as affinity separations, diagnostic imaging, and research reagents. In August 2008, Dyax entered a $50 million loan agreement with Cowen Healthcare Royalty Partners (CHRP) secured by the Company's Licensing and Funded Research Program (LFRP). Dyax will use a portion of the revenues generated by the LFRP to make payments to the CHRP loan agreement which matures in 2016. Dyax is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For online information about Dyax Corp., please visit [ www.dyax.com ].
Dyax Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the expected benefits of Dyax's licensed technology in its collaboration with Biogen Idec and the prospects for development of therapeutic antibodies. Statements that are not historical facts are based on Dyax's current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates, forecasts and projections about the industry and markets in which Dyax competes. The statements contained in this release are not guarantees of future performance and involve certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions, which are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may differ materially from what is expressed in such forward-looking statements. Important factors which may affect the expected benefits of Dyax's collaboration with Biogen Idec and the prospects for development of antibodies include the risks that: products from this collaboration may not show therapeutic effect or an acceptable safety profile in clinical trials or could take a significantly longer time to gain regulatory approval than Dyax expects or may never gain approval; products developed in this collaboration may not gain market acceptance; others may develop products superior to those being developed in this collaboration; Dyax is dependent on the expertise, effort, priorities and contractual obligations of Biogen Idec in the development of products arising out of this collaboration; Dyax and Biogen Idec may not be able to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for the products of this collaboration; and other risk factors described or referred to in Dyax's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and other periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Dyax cautions investors not to place undue reliance on the forward-looking statements contained in this release. These statements speak only as of the date of this release, and Dyax undertakes no obligations to update or revise these statements, except as may be required by law. Dyax specifically disclaims responsibility for information describing Biogen Idec and its business other than the license with Dyax.
Dyax and the Dyax logo are the registered trademarks of Dyax Corp.
1. Hoet RM et al. (2005). Generation of high-affinity human antibodies by combining donor-derived and synthetic complementarity-determining-region diversity.Nature Biotechnology, 23(3):344-8.
2. Wassaf D. et al. (2006). High-throughput affinity ranking of antibodies using surface plasmon resonance microarrays.Analytical Biochemistry. 351(2):241-253
