Health & Fitness
Health and Fitness
Health and Fitness
Tue, July 26, 2011 Dyax Corp. and Kadmon Corporation Announce Antibody Library License Agreement
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & NEW YORK--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ: DYAX) and Kadmon Corporation, LLC (Kadmon) announced today that Dyax has granted Kadmon a non-exclusive license to Dyaxa™s proprietary agold-standarda antibody phage display libraries for the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies. Dyaxa™s human antibody phage libraries combine gene fragments from human donors with strategically designed synthetic DNA, and are used to identify high-affinity human antibodies that bind to numerous therapeutic targets, including cell surface proteins such as tumor cell markers, viral antigens, enzymes and glycoproteins.
"We are pleased to have entered into this agreement with Kadmon, a company whose scientific leadership clearly understands the versatility and strength of Dyaxa™s technology"
Samuel D. Waksal, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Kadmon, said, aThis agreement provides us with the opportunity to work with Dyax and their powerful, industry-leading technology to develop novel medicines targeting the pathways of proliferation and survival in disease. The team at Kadmon has extensive experience in collaborating with Dyax, having employed their technology to develop ImClone Systemsa™ significant oncology pipeline. We look forward to resuming our relationship with Dyax and to adding to our pipeline of medicines in oncology, infectious diseases, immunology and neurodegenerative diseases.a
aWe are pleased to have entered into this agreement with Kadmon, a company whose scientific leadership clearly understands the versatility and strength of Dyaxa™s technology,a commented Gustav Christensen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dyax. aDyax continues to build value through the Licensing and Funded Research Program which, through its unmatched royalty portfolio, is expected to generate up to $85 million in revenue within the next five years. As our agreements extend ten years beyond first commercial sale, irrespective of patent expiry, this unique franchise will contribute to Dyaxa™s bottom line for many years to come.a
The terms of this strategic agreement include upfront and annual license fees, clinical and regulatory milestone payments. Dyax is also entitled to royalties on net sales of any products identified using Dyaxa™s technology that may be developed and commercialized by Kadmon. The agreement also provides Kadmon with sublicenses to relevant third-party antibody phage display patents related to Dyaxa™s technology.
About Dyaxa™s Phage Display
Dyaxa™s proprietary drug discovery technology, phage display, provides an efficient means to identify compounds that interact with a wide array of therapeutic targets. Dyaxa™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. Dyaxa™s state-of-the-art antibody phage display libraries allow 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 an integrated biopharmaceutical company built on proprietary phage display technology. This technology discovered Dyaxa™s lead product, ecallantide, approved under the brand name KALBITOR® in the United States for the treatment of acute attacks of hereditary angioedema (HAE) in patients 16 years of age and older. Dyax leverages this technology broadly as part of its Licensing and Funded Research Program (LFRP), which has approximately 75 revenue generating licenses and collaborations for therapeutic discovery, as well as for affinity separations, diagnostic imaging, and research reagents. The success of the Companya™s LFRP royalty portfolio is illustrated by the programa™s advanced licensee pipeline that includes 17 candidates in clinical development. Of them, four candidates are in Phase 3 clinical trials, four are in Phase 2 and nine are in Phase 1. For more information, visit [ www.dyax.com ].
About Kadmon Corporation
Kadmon Corporation, LLC is a global biopharmaceutical company built on a 21st-century paradigm for the translation of innovative science into treatment. The company currently offers products and services for the treatment and management of hepatitis C. Kadmon is pioneering medicines in oncology, infectious diseases, immunology and neurodegenerative diseases by using new understandings in molecular biology to develop therapies that target the metabolomic and signaling pathways associated with disease. For more information, visit [ www.kadmon.com ].
Dyax Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the expected benefits of Dyaxa™s licensed technology in its license to Kadmon. Statements that are not historical facts are based on Dyaxa™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 Dyaxa™s license to Kadmon include the risks that: Dyaxa™s future benefits from its non-exclusive licensing program depend on the efforts and priorities of its licensees, which may be subject to changes in the licenseea™s business direction or priorities; others may develop technologies or products superior to Dyaxa™s phage display technologies; Dyax may not be able to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for its products and technologies; and other risk factors described or referred to in Dyaxa™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 Kadmon and its business other than the license with Dyax.
Dyax, the Dyax logo and KALBITOR 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
