AnaptysBio announced the successful completion of an optimization project for Merck & Co., Inc. as part of an agreement for the delivery of candidate antibodies for therapeutic use

SAN DIEGO, CA, USA | January 4, 2011 |  AnaptysBio, Inc., a privately-held therapeutic antibody platform and product company, announced today the successful completion of an optimization project for Merck & Co., Inc. as part of an agreement for the delivery of candidate antibodies for therapeutic use.

“One of the many applications of AnaptysBio’s SHM-XEL™ platform is to optimize the binding properties of existing antibodies to meet challenging therapeutic design goals,” said Tom Smart, chairman and chief executive officer for AnaptysBio. “We look forward to continued success in this relationship with Merck."

Under the terms of the agreement, Merck has worldwide rights to the development and commercialization of the candidate antibodies that were optimized by AnaptysBio using the SHM-XEL™ platform. In return, AnaptysBio has received an upfront payment and a success milestone payment for the delivery of optimized antibodies that met the agreed upon design criteria. In addition, AnaptysBio is eligible to receive milestone payments and royalties associated with the development and sale of any products derived from the delivered antibodies.

About AnaptysBio

Founded in 2005, AnaptysBio, Inc. is a privately-held therapeutic antibody product company and the leader in the use of somatic hypermutation, or SHM, for antibody discovery and optimization. SHM is the body’s natural process for generating potent antibodies to fight disease. The Company’s SHM-XEL™ platform couples SHM with mammalian cell expression, secretion and display, deep sequencing, and flow cytometry to generate antibodies for therapeutic applications through an iterative process of natural evolution and high-throughput selection – a process that has been referred to as “naturalizing” antibodies. This versatile platform can be used for both discovery of new antibodies and optimization of existing antibodies to generate candidates with desired binding and specificity properties for therapeutic applications. AnaptysBio has established broad intellectual property around the use of SHM, and is currently building a pipeline of novel therapeutic antibody product candidates. Major investors in AnaptysBio include founding investor Avalon Ventures, as well as Alloy Ventures, Frazier Healthcare Ventures, and Novo A/S. In November 2007, AnaptysBio raised $33.9 million in a Series B equity financing led by Novo A/S. For more information, visit www.anaptysbio.com.

SOURCE: AnaptysBio, Inc.