Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Dyax secures $50M loan

By Mass High Tech Staff

Dyax Corp. has secured a $50 million loan with equity firm Cowen Healthcare Royalty Partners LP. Some of the funds will be used to buy back its interest from a previous royalty agreement made in August 2006 with Paul Royalty Fund II LP.  At that time, Dyax (Nasdaq: DYAX) entered into a licensing deal for the use of one of company’s drug discovery research tools.

The Cambridge-based biotech focuses on discovery and development of antibody, protein and peptide drugs. Another revenue stream for Dyax is the licensing of its phage display library through the company’s Licensing and Funded Research Program (LFRP). Phage display is a method for studying various protein interactions.

Over the course of the revenue sharing agreement – and Dyax’s subsequent repurchasing of its interest – the company earned about $15 million in net revenue.

Dyax has over 70 LFRP licensing and collaborating agreements. Through the use of the phage display library, its partners have generated about a dozen therapeutics in clinical development and one on the market.

Dyax reported a 2007 net loss of $56.3 million on revenue of $26.1 million. It employs a total of 177 workers.