Catalyst bags potential $500M deal with Wyeth

South San Francisco-based Catalyst Biosciences and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals announced that the companies have entered into a worldwide collaboration valued at potentially more than $500M for the discovery, development and commercialization of recombinant Factor VIIa products for patients with hemophilia and other bleeding conditions.*

The deal covers Catalyst's Factor VIIa products, which could treat hemophilia and other bleeding conditions. Wyeth will fund the discovery, research and preclinical development of Factor VIIa products, including CB 813, Catalyst's drug for the treatment and prevention of bleeding in hemophilia patients. The funds will support up to twelve full time employees at the biotech company. After Catalyst has completed preclinical development, Wyeth will take over development, manufacturing and commercialization of any products resulting from the partnership.

"This collaboration serves as an excellent fit with our recombinant Factor VIII and Factor IX hemophilia products and provides us with an opportunity to expand Wyeth's hemophilia franchise," says Mikael Dolsten, President, Wyeth Research. "We have been impressed by the caliber of Catalyst's therapeutic protein engineering skills used in the Factor VIIa program and the lead candidate CB 813. We look forward to a highly productive collaboration."

- here's the release [1]

Related ArticleS:
Catalyst Biosciences - Top 20 VC deals of 2008 [2]
Emerging Drug Developer: Catalyst Biosciences [3]
Catalyst gets $40.4M for protease therapeutics work [4]

*Correction: The original version of this story confused Catalyst Biosciences with Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners. It incorrectly stated that Catalyst Biosciences was in need of the funding that it received from Wyeth, and that the company had halted a mid-stage trial in March. That information refered to Catalyst Pharmaceutical Partners. Catalyst Biosciences has not halted any trials and in fact landed one of the top 20 VC deals of 2008 [2].