West Coast Editor

Dyax Corp.'s human antibody libraries drew a deal of undisclosed financial size with Biogen Idec Inc., which is providing research funding to Dyax for at least three years in an arrangement that's slightly different from earlier library deals.

"They bring the targets to us and we screen them in-house," said Ivana Magovcevic, senior vice president of legal affairs for Cambridge, Mass.-based Dyax. "We did a pilot study and they said they wanted to do a deal."

Recently hard-hit Dyax shares already had recovered somewhat from a setback last month and the stock (NASDAQ:DYAX) closed Wednesday at $7.25, up 32 cents. Biogen Idec's shares (NASDAQ:BIIB) ended the day at $59.64, down 86 cents.

Under the terms, Biogen Idec, also of Cambridge, has access to the libraries for the purpose of identifying and characterizing up to 30 protein targets per year, and Biogen Idec retains the rights to develop and commercialize them. Dyax gets development milestone payments and royalties.

"Biogen has recognized it's not just the library [that's important]," Magovcevic told BioWorld Today. "Of course the library is very good, but it takes a certain level of skill to mine that library. They were impressed with the speed and quality of the binders we gave them."

Other deals with the likes of Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen Inc. and MedImmune Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., "were straight library licenses," she added. "We do some training for them, but they screen the library and pull out the binders themselves."

Biogen Idec has been riding high. With Dublin, Ireland-based partner Elan Corp. plc, the company said Monday that one-year data from the Phase III AFFIRM trial with Antegren (natalizumab) reduced the rate of multiple sclerosis relapses by 66 percent compared to placebo. (See BioWorld Today, Nov. 9, 2004.)

Last month, Dyax and partner Genzyme Corp., also of Cambridge, said the FDA wants more clinical work before a biologics license application can be filed for Dyax's lead product candidate, DX-88, for hereditary angioedema. The news caused Dyax's stock to tumble almost 25 percent to close at $6.08 (See BioWorld Today, Oct. 25, 2004.)

Also called HAE, hereditary angioedema is an immune system disorder caused by the lack of a protein, the C1 inhibitor, which affects blood vessels and leads to sudden swelling of the hands, feet, limbs, face, intestinal tract or airway (larynx or trachea).

DX-88 hit an earlier snag in the spring, when the FDA placed its trial on clinical hold pending answers about rat toxicity studies. Dyax's stock lost 28 percent that time around, but trials resumed in June. (See BioWorld Today, May 26, 2004.)

Also in the pipeline is DX-890, which, like DX-88, is a recombinant small protein discovered by way of Dyax's phage display technology. The two drugs are in Phase II development for HAE, cystic fibrosis and open heart surgery, specifically on-pump coronary artery bypass grafting procedures. Both compounds have orphan drug status in the U.S. and European Union, with DX-88 given fast-track status by the FDA.