Maxygen
| Company type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Biopharmaceuticals |
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder | Alejandro Zaffaroni, Willem P.C. Stemmer, Russell Howard, Isaac Stein |
| Defunct | 2013 |
| Headquarters | Redwood City , United States |
Key people | Robert Whalen (Chief Scientific Officer), James English (Vice President of Research), James Sulat (CEO/CFO until 2013) |
| Products | Protein-based therapeutics, G-CSF for chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, MAXY-4 (CTLA4-Ig therapeutic) |
Maxygen Inc. operated as a biopharmaceutical enterprise concentrating on enhancing protein-based therapeutics through advanced DNA shuffling and protein engineering methods. Its main office was located in Redwood City, California until the company ceased operations in 2013. The Maxygen name was reestablished in 2018 under Maxygen LLC, which specializes in the Directed Evolution of Proteins via Molecular Breeding techniques and is now headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Clinical Programs
Among Maxygen's clinical initiatives was an innovative G-CSF designed to treat chemotherapy-induced neutropenia, which entered clinical trials in 2006. Additionally, the company pursued a preclinical project named MAXY-4, focused on developing a CTLA4-Ig therapeutic agent aimed at managing rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders.
Technologies
Maxygen was created to commercialize its unique Molecular Breeding platform, a form of directed evolution, which generated extensive libraries consisting of millions of gene and protein variants for commercial evaluation. This evolutionary approach, inspired by natural selection, was substantiated by numerous patents and scientific articles, including a notable publication in Nature in 1998.
History
Established in 1997 by Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni along with co-founders Dr. Willem P.C. Stemmer, Dr. Russell Howard, and Isaac Stein, Maxygen initially concentrated on modifying interferons. By the year 2000, the company had moved its headquarters to Redwood City.
Maxygen demonstrated its commercial viability across multiple sectors such as agriculture, veterinary applications, industrial enzymes and chemicals, as well as therapeutic development. To bolster its biopharmaceutical capabilities, Maxygen acquired the Danish firm Profound Pharma A/S in 2000.
In the same year, Maxygen went public alongside industry peers including Diversa, Applied Molecular Evolution, and Genencor International. It licensed several compounds to H. Lundbeck and applied its technology platform to enzymes such as subtilisin.
To bring products derived from its platform to market, Maxygen founded Codexis (focusing on enzymes and chemicals) and MaxyAg (targeting agricultural applications), with the latter later renamed Verdia Inc. Verdia was acquired by DuPont in 2004 for $64 million. In 2003, Maxygen launched Avidia to develop protein subunit therapeutics; this entity was purchased by Amgen in 2006 for $290 million.
In 2008, Maxygen divested its recombinant clotting factor VIIa candidate MAXY-VII to Bayer HealthCare. The following year, it formed Perseid Therapeutics in partnership with Astellas Pharma, maintaining majority control to further develop proprietary technologies. By 2011, Astellas completed acquisition of Perseid and its lead drug candidate MAXY-4 (ASP2408), which competes with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Orencia.
Facing ongoing challenges in the protein pharmaceuticals sector, Maxygen's board resolved to liquidate the company in June 2013; CEO/CFO James Sulat departed that same month. Prior to filing for dissolution on August 29, 2013, the company sought a purchaser for its pegylated granulocyte colony-stimulating factor candidate MAXY-G34 and subsequently terminated all business activities.
Corporate governance
Chief Scientific Officer – Robert Whalen Vice President of Research – James English
Tassos Gianakakos formerly held the role of Director of Business Development at Maxygen.
Further reading
External links
- Publications related to Maxygen
- Company overview: Bloomberg