Dyax Corp. and Glenmark Pharmaceuticals SA, the wholly-owned Swiss subsidiary of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Glenmark), announced that they have entered into a funded research agreement for the discovery of therapeutic antibodies.
Under the terms of this agreement, Dyax will perform funded research to identify therapeutic antibodies for three targets provided by Glenmark. Furthermore, these research activities may be expanded to include additional targets.
According to a Glenmark press release, Dyax will receive technology license fees and full time employee payments from Glenmark for the funded research as well as clinical milestone payments and royalties on net sales that may result from Glenmark's development and commercialization of antibodies from Dyax's libraries. The agreement also provides Glenmark with sublicenses to relevant third-party antibody phage display patents that may be used with Dyax's technology.
Henry E Blair, chairman and chief executive officer of Dyax, commented, "We are very excited to have entered into an agreement with Glenmark, one of India's most successful research driven pharmaceutical companies with an expanding pipeline of product candidates in oncology and inflammation. This collaboration further enhances our remarkable success and the growing value in our Licensing and Funded Research Program (LFRP)."
Glenn Saldanha, managing director and CEO of Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd., on this occasion commented, "This is a very important step in Glenmark's entry in the field of Novel Biologics Research. Oncology and inflammation are areas of large unmet medical needs. Our strategy to supplement NCE research with Biologics Research would allow us to build a strong pipeline in this area. We expect the first Biologic product from Glenmark to enter clinics in 2009."
Dr. Michael Buschle, president of Biologics Business of Glenmark, stated, "Dyax's antibody platform is considered to be an industry-leading technology and we are very pleased to partner with them. We anticipate three highly promising New Biological Entities coming out of this collaboration."
Dyax is headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and has antibody discovery facilities in Liege, Belgium. Dyax is focused on advancing novel biotherapeutics for unmet medical needs, with an emphasis on oncology and inflammatory indications.