Maxygen, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAXY) is committed to developing superior versions of existing major protein pharmaceuticals. The company’s lead product candidates meet the demands of substantial market opportunities such as cancer and autoimmune diseases. Well positioned for growth, Maxygen has a number of promising product candidates and the financial strength required to drive them through clinical development.
Maxygen currently has three protein pharmaceuticals advancing towards clinical development. Behind its product candidates, the company has developed a broad pipeline of other human therapeutics products that are in earlier stages of development. In addition to these, Maxygen also believes its proprietary technologies could transform the design and development of vaccines.
The company’s MAXY-G34 product candidate was designed to be an improved next-generation granulocyte colony stimulating factor for the treatment of neutropenia, a severe decrease in neutrophil cell counts in the blood. MAXY-G34 may help the body make white blood cells more quickly than the products currently approved, which could make it an attractive alternative for both doctors and patients. With worldwide annual sales of G-CSF products totaling approximately $4.8 billion in 2007, there is much potential for this candidate.
Strategic collaborations are an important part of the company’s business strategy. Maxygen actively seeks out-licensing and other agreements with pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies that retain commercial development expertise. In exchange for licenses to protein therapeutics or other specific applications of its proprietary products, Maxygen usually requests up-front fees, collaborative research funding, milestone payments and royalties on product sales.
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