Our Approach

Affymax has developed a discovery platform based on advanced recombinant peptide and peptide chemistry techniques that allows us to generate novel peptide alternatives to protein drugs. Our approach also identifies peptides with no amino acid sequence homology to other known naturally-occurring human sequences. We are leveraging our discovery platform to develop a pipeline of peptide-based drug candidates against known drug targets already proven to be of important clinical value. We focus our drug development effort particularly where there is a clear opportunity to address clinical needs that are unmet or underserved by current products. In developing peptide drug candidates, our goal is to improve upon currently marketed peptide and recombinant protein-based drugs. We are also applying our multifaceted approach to development to improve drug candidates that are currently under study elsewhere.

By combining innovative biology and synthetic chemistry techniques, we are creating novel peptides targeted to address unmet medical needs.

Our Drug Discovery Process

A differentiator of our drug discovery process is our ability to design and synthesize novel peptides by recombinant techniques combined with our proprietary synthetic chemistry approaches. Our multi-discipline drug discovery process generates small peptides that bind to and activate or block protein targets such as receptors, antibodies, and toxins. This approach incorporates several advanced peptide chemistry techniques resulting in peptides with significantly greater potency and stability than those arising from more traditional approaches.

The Affymax peptide drug discovery process begins with our Recombinant Peptide Diversity (RPD) technique. RPD generates billions of peptide molecules that are then selected and optimized for drug activity. With the Company’s RPD technique, 10 to 100 billion unique peptide sequences can be generated and screened while bound to either bacteriophages (bacterial viruses) or plasmids (small circular pieces of DNA). The RPD approach identifies peptides that bind to specific molecular targets but have little to no sequence homology to native proteins. These peptides then serve as prototype compounds for further chemical optimization and eventually for the development of experimental therapeutics. Our high-speed analoging approaches and access to a full battery of peptide-modifying chemistries allow this optimization process to proceed efficiently from lead peptides to potent drug candidates.

Peptide Advantages

Peptides are composed of amino acids, which are commonly known as the building blocks of proteins. Typically, a peptide is composed of fewer than 50 amino acids, while a protein contains more than 50 amino acids. This difference in size can result in selective drug activities and determine the ability of a molecule to be chemically synthesized and developed as a pharmaceutical product.