July 22, 2008
Dyax Corp. and AVEO Pharmaceuticals Announce Antibody Library License Agreement
Cambridge, MA, July 22, 2008 – Dyax Corp. (NASDAQ: DYAX) and AVEO Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that Dyax has granted AVEO a non-exclusive license to Dyax’s proprietary 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.
“Dyax’s phage display technology is a powerful and proven platform for rapidly generating human antibodies, a therapeutic approach with realized potential,” remarked Tuan Ha-Ngoc, President and Chief Executive Officer of AVEO. “Access to Dyax’s state-of-the-art antibody phage display libraries will further strengthen AVEO’s novel antibody drug discovery and translational research capabilities. This technology will be instrumental as AVEO continues to develop its maturing pipeline of more than 10 programs dedicated to the delivery of novel, high-quality oncology antibody drug candidates.”
The terms of this strategic agreement include upfront and annual license fees, clinical and regulatory milestone payments, as well as other considerations. Dyax is also entitled to royalties on net sales of any products identified by AVEO using Dyax’s technology that may be developed and commercialized by AVEO and/or its sublicenses. The agreement also provides AVEO with sublicenses to relevant third-party antibody phage display patents related to Dyax’s technology.
“We are pleased to have entered into this agreement with AVEO, a pioneering company in the area of cancer therapeutics,” commented Henry E. Blair, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dyax. “The innovative structure of this agreement is another example of our strategy to expand our licensed antibody pipeline through a wide variety of strategic partnerships and collaborations.”
About Dyax
Dyax is focused on advancing novel biotherapeutics for unmet medical needs, with an emphasis in oncology and inflammation. Dyax utilizes its proprietary drug discovery technology, phage display, to identify antibody, small protein and peptide compounds. Dyax, on its own or with its partners, has advanced several product candidates from discovery and lead validation into preclinical and clinical development. The Company’s lead product candidate, DX-88, is a recombinant small protein that is being developed by Dyax for its therapeutic potential for treating hereditary angioedema (HAE). 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 HAE attacks. In April 2008, Dyax licensed to Cubist Pharmaceuticals the intravenous formulation of DX-88 for surgical indications in North America and Europe. In addition to using phage display for its internal pipeline, Dyax leverages this technology broadly into revenue generating licenses and collaborations through its Licensing and Funded Research Program (LFRP). Under a 2006 funding arrangement with Paul Royalty Fund II, Dyax received a $30 million upfront cash payment in exchange for granting Paul Royalty the right to receive a specified percentage of the net royalties, including all milestones fees and other payments, receivable by Dyax under the LFRP through 2017. Dyax is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts. For more information about Dyax Corp., please visit http://www.dyax.com/.
About AVEO Pharmaceuticals
AVEO is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of novel, targeted cancer therapeutics. AVEO’s proprietary, integrated cancer biology platform enables the company to pursue highly efficient drug development strategies in oncology that increase the probability of clinical success and provides a discovery engine for high-value targets. This approach has resulted in a balanced pipeline of novel cancer therapies focused on well-validated targets (VEGFR, EGFR) and promising novel targets (HGF, FGFR), as well as collaborations with Eli Lilly, Merck, OSI Pharmaceuticals and Schering-Plough. Through a combination of internal drug discovery and selective in-licensing of targeted therapeutics, AVEO is building a diversified product pipeline and moving toward its vision of becoming a fully integrated biopharmaceutical company. For more information, please visit the company’s website at http://www.aveopharma.com/.
Dyax Disclaimer
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the expected benefits of Dyax’s license to AVEO Pharmaceuticals and the potential value of the LFRP. 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 license to AVEO and the potential value of the LFRP include the risks that: Dyax’s future benefits from its LFRP depend on the efforts and priorities of its licensees, which may be subject to changes in each licensee’s business direction or priorities; others may develop technologies or products superior to Dyax’s phage display technologies; Dyax may not be able to obtain and maintain intellectual property protection for its products and technologies; Dyax’s LFRP assets are subject to its obligations to Paul Royalty; 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 AVEO and its business other than the license with Dyax.
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