4001 Miranda Avenue |
Andrew Perlman, CEO |
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. |