Protein Engineering Corp., with its phage displaytechnology, has joined forces with Biotage Inc., whichdevelops chromatography systems, to form a newcompany called Dyax Corp. in Cambridge, Mass.

The merger of the two privately held companies included$4 million in new financing for Dyax with PrinceVentures, of Westport, Conn., the lead investor. ProteinEngineering and Biotage will operate as divisions ofDyax with Henry Blair, a co-founder of Cambridge,Mass.-based Genzyme Corp., chairman and CEO. Blairalso helped establish Biotage.

Edward Cannon, formerly of Protein Engineering, andRobert Dishman, from Biotage, will continue to lead theiroperations.

Dyax's patented core technology is based on ProteinEngineering's phage display, also called combinatorialbiology, which can be applied to develop affinitychromatography products along with drugs anddiagnostics.

Dyax intends to operate a fully integratedchromatography business and create drug and diagnosticcandidates for collaborative development.

In phage display, genes are spliced into bacteriophagewhich then express the proteins on the external surfacesof the virus.

Cannon said that with the technology developed byProtein Engineering, tens of millions of variants to theoriginal expressed protein molecules are produced andscreened to find those that bind the best to a specifictarget.

One of Dyax's immediate tasks will be to seek licenseagreements from numerous companies that have beenusing the patented technology, which covers the processand composition of matter for generating and screeningprotein and peptide libraries.

Dyax already has a drug compound of its own inpreclinical trials. Using phage display, ProteinEngineering made what Cannon described as the "tightestbinding neutrophil elastase inhibitors" among any underdevelopment.

Neutrophil elastase breaks down proteins that provideelasticity for certain tissues, such as those in lungs. Theproteases are believed to be responsible for disorders suchas emphysema, cystic fibrosis and bronchitis. The elastaseinhibitors developed by Dyax are variants of the humananti-trypsin protein, protinin.

Cannon said Dyax is seeking corporate partners toundertake clinical testing of the elastase inhibitors. Dyaxcurrently is working with a pharmaceutical company anda biotechnology firm on other projects, however, hewould not disclose details.

The elastase inhibitor is Dyax's most advanced productcandidate generated by phage display, but Cannon saidthe company has identified other molecules targeted fordrug and diagnostic development. n

-- Charles Craig

(c) 1997 American Health Consultants. All rights reserved.