Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Dyax nears drug commercialization with $15M loan upgrade

By Mass High Tech staff

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Cambridge-based biotech Dyax Corp. updated an existing loan in order to receive a $15 million Tranche B loan, intended to support costs associated with commercializing the company’s lead product candidate, DX-88.

The Dyax Licensing and Funded Research Program, which licenses the company’s phage display library, will secure the loan with equity firm Cowen Healthcare Royalty Partners LP, as it had done for the company’s $50 million Tranche A loan last year.

Dyax (Nasdaq: DYAX) researches and develops antibody, protein and peptide drugs. DX-88 is a recombinant small protein being evaluated for its therapeutic potential for two uses.

Dyax announced last month that it had signed a deal with France-based Fovea Pharmaceuticals SA to develop an ocular formation of DX-88 and use it to form a treatment for retinal disease.

In November, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration accepted Dyax’s request for approval of DX-88 to treat hereditary angioedema. Additionally, DX-88 is under evaluation to prevent blood loss during on-pump cardiothoracic surgery.

The company 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.