Watching, but I'm not a shareholder anymore.
Dyax Announces Collaboration with Baxter to Discover Anti-MIF Antibody
Monday January 12, 7:30 am ET
CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 12, 2004--Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ: DYAX - News) announced today a research collaboration with Baxter Healthcare Corporation (NYSE: BAX - News) to utilize Dyax's proprietary phage display technology to discover antibodies that block macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), a clinical target to which Baxter has an exclusive license from Cytokine PharmaSciences, Inc.
Under the terms of the agreement, Dyax and Baxter will conduct a research program to identify and characterize antibodies that bind specifically to MIF and neutralize its activity. MIF is a cytokine involved in immune, infectious and malignant disorders. Neutralizing MIF activity may be useful in the treatment of a wide spectrum of diseases, including asthma, severe infections and certain types of cancers.
Baxter has an exclusive right to develop and commercialize therapeutic products based on any antibodies that Dyax identifies. Baxter will fund Dyax to perform its portion of the research program and will pay milestones if the antibodies identified by Dyax meet certain preclinical performance criteria. In addition, Dyax will be entitled to receive contingency based milestones and royalty payments for a specified period of time upon Baxter's successful commercialization of any therapeutic products based on antibodies identified by Dyax.
"Our collaboration with Baxter contributes to Dyax's objective of expanding revenue-generating research collaborations. It provides further validation of Dyax's antibody discovery technology, an asset enhanced by our in-licenses of key third party antibody phage display patents," said Henry E. Blair, Chairman, President and CEO of Dyax Corp. He added, "Given the success of anti-cytokine biopharmaceuticals, we are extremely pleased to enter into this collaboration with Baxter to discover anti-MIF antibodies."
Dyax Corp.
Dyax Corp. is a biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development and commercialization of antibodies, small proteins and peptides as therapeutic products for unmet medical needs, particularly in the areas of inflammation and oncology. Dyax currently has two recombinant proteins in phase II clinical trials. DX-88 is in phase II trials for the potential treatment of hereditary angioedema in collaboration with Genzyme Corporation. Dyax is also evaluating DX-88 in phase I/II studies for its potential use during open heart surgery, specifically coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) procedures that utilize cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB).The Company's second clinical compound, DX-890, is in phase II clinical trials for the potential treatment of cystic fibrosis. Both DX-88 and DX-890 were identified using Dyax's patented phage display technology, which Dyax uses to rapidly identify compounds that bind with high affinity and specificity to therapeutic targets. Dyax is building a pipeline of drug candidates that may be advanced into clinical development at Dyax or in partnership with other companies. Dyax leverages its technology broadly through more than 75 revenue generating licenses and collaborations for therapeutic discovery, as well as for non-core areas such as affinity separations, diagnostic imaging, and research reagents. For more information on Dyax Corp., please visit the Company's website at www.dyax.com. |
