4001 Miranda Avenue
Palo Alto, Calif. 94303
Phone: 650-812-8700
www.affymax.com

Andrew Perlman, CEO
Privately Held

Overview

Founded in 1988, Affymax Inc. was absorbed by GlaxoSmithKline plc in 1995. The company was spun out again in August 2001 to focus on building a pipeline of its own.

Affymax primarily has been in the business of helping to produce drugs through a combination of chemistries, molecular biology techniques and instrumentation technology. The company synthesizes, screens and optimizes potential new drug compounds.

The company will now focus on two families for drug development: protein tyrosine phosphatases (PTPs) and single transmembrane receptors (1-TMs). From those families it will be able to develop small-molecule drug to attack a range of indications. The company's first potential product is the small-molecule agonist to the erythropoietin receptor, a 1-TM receptor.

A syndicate of investors lead by Patricof & Co., invested $51 million in the Affymax spin-out. The Sprout Group, MPM Asset Management, and Patricof's sister company in Europe, Apax Partners, round out the investors. Late in 2001 the company's board was conducting a search for the management team.