Maxygen Inc. was a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing improved versions of protein drugs using DNA shuffling and other protein modification technologies. The company was headquartered in

Redwood City, CA Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area, approximately south of San Francisco, and northwest of San Jose. Redwood City's history spans its earliest inhabitation by the Ohlone people to being a po ...

. It dissolved in 2013. The Maxygen legacy was revived in 2018 with a focus on Directed Evolution of Proteins using Molecular Breeding. Maxygen LLC is currently headquartered in Sunnyvale, CA.

Clinical Programs

Maxygen Inc's clinical programs included a novel

G-CSF Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF or GCSF), also known as colony-stimulating factor 3 (CSF 3), is a glycoprotein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce granulocytes and stem cells and release them into the bloodstream. Functional ...

for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced

neutropenia Neutropenia is an abnormally low concentration of neutrophils (a type of white blood cell) in the blood. Neutrophils make up the majority of circulating white blood cells and serve as the primary defense against infections by destroying bacteri ...

, which entered clinical trials in 2006. Maxygen also had a preclinical program, MAXY-4, to develop a novel

CTLA4 CTLA-4 or CTLA4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4), also known as CD152 (cluster of differentiation 152), is a protein receptor that functions as an immune checkpoint and downregulates immune responses. CTLA-4 is constitutively expr ...

-Ig therapeutic for the treatment of

rheumatoid arthritis Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a long-term autoimmune disorder that primarily affects synovial joint, joints. It typically results in warm, swollen, and painful joints. Pain and stiffness often worsen following rest. Most commonly, the wrist and ...

and other autoimmune diseases.

Technologies

Maxygen Inc. was established to commercially exploit its proprietary recombination-based technologies for creating genetic diversity, known as its Molecular Breeding

directed evolution Directed evolution (DE) is a method used in protein engineering that mimics the process of natural selection to steer proteins or nucleic acids toward a user-defined goal. It consists of subjecting a gene to iterative rounds of mutagenesis (cre ...

platform. These technologies allow the generation of millions of variant genes and proteins, which then can be screened to identify those with potential commercial interest. This laboratory process mimics the powerful natural process of evolution. The success of Maxygen's technology was documented in numerous scientific publications and patents, in particular a 1998

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

letter.

History

Maxygen was founded in 1997 by Dr.

Alejandro Zaffaroni Alejandro Zaffaroni (February 27, 1923 – March 1, 2014) was a Uruguayan serial entrepreneur who was responsible for founding several biotechnology companies in Silicon Valley. Products that he was involved in developing include the birth contro ...

, a San Francisco Bay Area scientist and entrepreneur, and three co-founders: Dr.

Willem P.C. Stemmer Willem P. C. "Pim" Stemmer (12 March 1957 – 2 April 2013)James W Larrick, Volker Schellenberger & Carlos F Barbas III (2013 Nature Biotechnology 31, 584. was a Dutch scientist and entrepreneur who invented numerous biotechnologies. He was ...

, Dr. Russell Howard and Isaac Stein. Dr. Zaffaroni has founded multiple companies including

ALZA Alza Corporation was a pharmaceutical and medical systems company. Background Founded in 1968 by Dr. Alejandro Zaffaroni; the company's name is a portmanteau of his name. Alza was a major pioneer in the field of drug delivery systems, bringing ...

Corporation, DNAX Research Institute, Affymax,

Affymetrix Affymetrix is now Applied Biosystems, a brand of DNA microarray products sold by Thermo Fisher Scientific that originated with an American biotechnology research and development and manufacturing company of the same name. The Santa Clara, Califor ...

Symyx Technologies Symyx Technologies, Inc. was a company that specialized in informatics and automation products. Symyx provided software solutions for scientific research, including Enterprise Laboratory Notebooks and products for combinatorial chemistry. The so ...

, and Alexza. The company was based in Santa Clara in 1998, suggesting that this might have been where it was founded. At this early stage, they were focused on engineering

interferons Interferons (IFNs, ) are a group of signaling proteins made and released by host cells in response to the presence of several viruses. In a typical scenario, a virus-infected cell will release interferons causing nearby cells to heighten the ...

. By 2000, the company's headquarters was reported as

Redwood City Redwood City is a city on the San Francisco Peninsula in Northern California's Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay e ...

. Maxygen has demonstrated that the MolecularBreeding directed evolution platform has commercial potential in a number of areas, including agriculture, veterinary medicine, enzyme/chemical processes, and human therapeutics. To accelerate its development of improved biopharmaceuticals, Maxygen acquired the Danish company

Profound Pharma Profound Pharma A/S was a Danish company that develops 2nd generation biopharmaceuticals. History Created in Denmark in 1999 by Christian Karsten Hansen and Jan Møller Mikkelsen, formerly of Novo Nordisk, the company was funded by venture capit ...

A/S in 2000, created by

Christian Karsten Hansen Christian Karsten Hansen (born 18 August 1966) is a Danish biotechnology entrepreneur, investor and inventor, with work in new drugs, molecular biology and biochemistry. Personal background Originally from Copenhagen (Denmark), he spent his chi ...

and Jan Møller Mikkelsen in 1999. In 2000, the company

went public Going public may refer to: * Initial public offering, financial action by a business * Whistleblowing, exposure of previously private information * ''Going Public'' (Newsboys album), 1994 * ''Going Public'' (Bruce Johnston album), 1977 {{Dis ...

, along with two of its direct competitors:

Diversa Verenium Corporation was a San Diego, California-based industrial biotechnology company founded in 2007 as the result of a merger between Diversa (San Diego) and Celunol (Cambridge, MA). The company specialized in research and development for the ...

. Applied Molecular Evolution and

Genencor International Genencor is a biotechnology company based in Palo Alto, CA and a subsidiary of IFF. Genencor is a producer of Industrial enzymes and low-priced bulk protein. The name Genencor originates with Genencor, Inc., the original joint venture between G ...

. Another company, Enchira Biotechnology, was also as direct competitor. By this time, the firm had also licensed a compound, identity unknown, to H. Lundbeck. By 2000, the firm had also applied its technology against subtililsin. To facilitate the commercial development of products made with its technologies, in 2002 Maxygen established

Codexis Codexis, Inc. is a protein engineering company that develops enzymes for pharmaceutical, food and medical applications. History Codexis is based in Redwood City, CA and was incorporated in 2002. It went public in April 2010 on NASDAQ, and in ...

to focus on enzyme/chemical applications and MaxyAg to focus on agricultural applications. MaxyAg was later renamed Verdia Inc., and Verdia was sold to DuPont in 2004 for $64 million. In addition, Maxygen established Avidia in 2003 to develop protein subunits as commercial products, including therapeutics. Avidia was purchased by

Amgen Amgen Inc. (formerly Applied Molecular Genetics Inc.) is an American multinational biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Thousand Oaks, California. One of the world's largest independent biotechnology companies, Amgen was established in ...

in 2006 for $290 million. In 2008, the company sold its MAXY-VII candidate drug, a recombinant form of clotting factor VIIa, to

Bayer HealthCare Bayer AG (, commonly pronounced ; ) is a German multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology company and one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world. Headquartered in Leverkusen, Bayer's areas of business include pharmaceutica ...

. 2009 saw the formation of a joint venture between Maxygen and

Astellas is a Japanese multinational pharmaceutical company, formed on 1 April 2005 from the merger of and . On February 5, 2020, the company announced management changes effective from April 1, 2020. Astellas is a member of the Mitsubishi UFJ Finan ...

called Perseid Therapeutics, in which Maxygen retained majority ownership. The intention was to work through Perseid to exploit most of Maxygen's proprietary technology and intellectual property. By 2011, Astellas exercised an option to fully acquire Perseid and with it the sole candidate drug in its portfolio, MAXY-4 (which became ASP2408 under Astellas), a

CTLA-4 CTLA-4 or CTLA4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4), also known as CD152 (cluster of differentiation 152), is a protein receptor that functions as an immune checkpoint and downregulates immune responses. CTLA-4 is constitutively exp ...

-immunoglobulin

fusion protein Fusion proteins or chimeric (kī-ˈmir-ik) proteins (literally, made of parts from different sources) are proteins created through the joining of two or more genes that originally coded for separate proteins. Translation of this ''fusion gene'' r ...

therapeutic, which was positioned to be a direct competitor to

Orencia Abatacept, sold under the brand name Orencia, is a medication used to treat autoimmune diseases like rheumatoid arthritis, by interfering with the immune activity of T cells. It is a modified antibody. Abatacept is a fusion protein composed o ...

, marketed by

Bristol-Myers Squibb The Bristol Myers Squibb Company (BMS) is an American multinational pharmaceutical company. Headquartered in New York City, BMS is one of the world's largest pharmaceutical companies and consistently ranks on the ''Fortune'' 500 list of the l ...

. It was reported in June 2013 that the company's board of directors had chosen to "liquidate and dissolve the struggling protein pharmaceuticals developer", which led to the exit of the company's CEO/CFO James Sulat by the end of June 2013. The company's intention at the time was to seek a buyer for its MAXY-G34 candidate drug, a

pegylated PEGylation (or pegylation) is the process of both covalent and non-covalent attachment or amalgamation of polyethylene glycol (PEG, in pharmacy called macrogol) polymer chains to molecules and macrostructures, such as a drug, therapeutic protein ...

granulocyte colony stimulating factor Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF or GCSF), also known as colony-stimulating factor 3 (CSF 3), is a glycoprotein that stimulates the bone marrow to produce granulocytes and stem cells and release them into the bloodstream. Functional ...

. Maxygen filed a certificate of dissolution on August 29, 2013. The company has ceased all operations.

Corporate governance

Chief Scientific Officer - Robert Whalen
Vice-President of Research - James English Tassos Gianakakos is a former

Director of Business Development Business development entails tasks and processes to develop and implement growth opportunities within and between organizations. It is a subset of the fields of business, commerce and organizational theory. Business development is the creation of ...

for Maxygen.

References

External links