Maxygen established the alliance with Roche in May 2003 in which Roche licensed worldwide commercialization rights to specific novel interferon alpha product candidates developed by Maxygen for hepatitis C and B.
Based on the continued successful development of the product candidates and the achievement of predefined goals, Maxygen could receive additional significant milestone payments in addition to royalties on product sales.
Maxygen and Roche are completing late stage preclinical studies and GMP manufacturing and expect to enter clinical development for this next generation interferon alpha in 2006.
“We believe our next generation interferon alpha program has the potential to become a cornerstone of future hepatitis C therapy and we are confident that Roche is the best partner for the program,” commented Russell Howard, CEO of Maxygen.