Sanofi to pay $500M for Dyax antibody program

Sanofi-Aventis has committed up to $500 million for the worldwide rights to Dyax's DX-2240 human monoclonal antibody [1] product. Sanofi also inked a nonexclusive license to Dyax's proprietary antibody phage display technology. Dyax pockets $25 million under the deal this year. Sanofi will be responsible for the ongoing development, commercialization and consolidation of sales of DX-2240. Dyax is retaining co-development and profit sharing rights "for certain other future antibody product candidates discovered by Sanofi-Aventis." DX-2240 is a fully human monoclonal antibody that targets the Tie-1 receptor on tumor blood vessels. In preclinical animal models, DX-2240 has demonstrated activity against a range of solid tumor types.

"These strategic agreements validate Dyax's capabilities to successfully discover novel antibody drug candidates utilizing our proprietary phage display technology and advance the resulting drug candidates into development," commented Henry E. Blair, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Dyax.

- check out the press release [2]

ALSO: Take a look at Sanofi's pipeline. Report [3]

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