Dyax Corp. and Kadmon Corporation Announce Antibody Library License Agreement
Press Release Source: Dyax Corp. On Tuesday July 26, 2011, 7:00 am
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. & NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ:DYAX - News) and Kadmon Corporation, LLC (Kadmon) announced today that Dyax has granted Kadmon a non-exclusive license to Dyax’s proprietary “gold-standard” antibody phage display libraries for the discovery and development of therapeutic antibodies. Dyax’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.
Samuel D. Waksal, Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of Kadmon, said, “This 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 Systems’ 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.”
“We are pleased to have entered into this agreement with Kadmon, a company whose scientific leadership clearly understands the versatility and strength of Dyax’s technology,” commented Gustav Christensen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dyax. “Dyax 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 Dyax’s bottom line for many years to come.”
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 Dyax’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 Dyax’s technology.
About Dyax’s Phage Display
Dyax’s proprietary drug discovery technology, 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 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
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