Affimed and Dyax Cross-License Antibody Technologies
Heidelberg, Germany and Cambridge, MA, August 12, 2003 – Affimed Therapeutics AG and Dyax Corp. (Nasdaq: DYAX) announced today that they have entered into a cross-licensing agreement for phage display technologies. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The Affimed licensed patents consist of two issued U.S. patents with broad claims. They cover the generation of human antibody libraries derived from the IgM repertoire of the immune system, which is considered to be the most diverse naturally occurring repertoire of antibody genes, and the generation of synthetic antibody libraries.
Dyax's Ladner patents have the earliest priority date for phage display patents in the United States and are the core patents in phage display technology. With four granted patents in the United States, Dyax has over 60 licensees to the Ladner patents, making this patent licensing program one of the most widely licensed in the biotechnology industry. The Ladner patents cover the practice of display technologies, including the display of antibodies, peptides, and proteins on any cell, spore, or virus, including bacteriophage.
Peter Fuhge, CEO of Affimed Therapeutics AG, commented: »The cross-licensing agreement with Dyax significantly strengthens our proprietary technology platform for developing therapeutic products using our high quality antibody libraries. This represents another important step on the way to becoming a complete antibody technology company.«
»Natural diversity from the IgM repertoire has important advantages over purely synthetic diversity or other natural antibody repertoires,« said Henry E. Blair, Chairman and CEO of Dyax Corp. »This agreement is an extension of our strategy to bring a broader intellectual property base and improved technology to both our customers and our internal Dyax antibody development programs.«
Affimed Therapuetics AG
Affimed is a product-oriented biotechnology company positioned in one of the fastest growing segments in the pharmaceutical industry – the market for monoclonal antibodies. The company was founded through a spin-off from the renowned German Cancer Research Center and is considered to be one of the few antibody companies that from the start of its existence has pursued a focused strategy to develop an in-house pipeline of promising human therapeutic proprietary antibody technologies supported by competencies in the screening and engineering of fully human antibodies. To date, Affimed is the only antibody player that has developed two large and quite different human antibody libraries, one is naïve derived from the IgM antibody repertoire and the other is fully synthetic. Affimed's strategy is to utilize both antibody libraries to ensure a high diversity and a higher probability in the isolation of very specific human antibodies against any target. The quality of the libraries and Affimed's screening and engineering expertise have been validated through the isolation of antibodies to various complex cell surface molecules. Affimed is, for example, the only firm to have succeeded in isolating antibodies that are specific for only the activated form of the GPIIb/IIIa receptor on the surface of blood platelets, falling within the top-selling indication for thrombosis. The company has also created novel proprietary antibody formats that have enabled the development of highly effective therapeutic approaches. These multivalent molecules have been shown to be particularly effective in recruiting cytotoxic cells of the immune system for the destruction of tumor cells. Antibody product candidates have been developed for the indications oncology, cardiovascular and immunosuppression.
Dyax Corp.
Dyax Corp. is a biopharmaceutical company principally focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of therapeutics for inflammatory conditions and in oncology. Dyax currently has two recombinant proteins in clinical development, DX-88 and DX-890. DX-88 is being studied in phase II clinical trials for the treatment of hereditary angioedema in a joint venture with Genzyme Corporation. Dyax is also studying DX-88 in a phase I/II clinical trial for use during cardiopulmonary bypass surgery. DX-890 is being studied in phase IIa clinical trials for the treatment of cystic fibrosis in collaboration with Debiopharm, S.A. Dyax utilizes its proprietary phage display technology to rapidly identify a broad range of recombinant protein, peptide, and fully human monoclonal antibody compounds that bind with high affinity and specificity to targets of interest, with the objective of selecting those compounds with the greatest potential for advancement into clinical development. Dyax leverages broadly its core phage display technology through revenue generating licenses and collaborations in therapeutics and in non-core areas of affinity separations, diagnostic imaging, and research reagents. Through its subsidiary, Biotage, Inc., Dyax develops, manufactures and sells chromatography separations systems and products to pharmaceutical companies worldwide for drug discovery and purification. For more information on Dyax Corp., please visit its website at www.dyax.com.
Dyax Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding collaborative arrangements and Dyax's technology and intellectual property position. 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 Dyax's collaborative arrangements and its technology and intellectual property position include the risks that Dyax may not be able to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for its products and technologies; others may develop technologies or products superior to Dyax's technologies or products; 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 and the Dyax logo are the registered trademarks of Dyax Corp.