Catalyst Receives Pfizer Milestone in Hemostasis Pact

Catalyst Biosciences, Inc. has received a $4.0 million milestone payment from Pfizer under their collaboration agreement for the development of recombinant human Factor VIIa variants for the treatment of hemophilia and other bleeding disorders.

“We are very encouraged by the progress made to date in our Factor VIIa program, the most advanced program within Catalyst’s hemostasis franchise,” said Nassim Usman, Ph.D., Catalyst’s chief executive officer.”In addition to our work with Pfizer, Catalyst has independently achieved significant progress in engineering highly differentiated recombinant human Factor IX and Xa variants for acute and prophylactic treatment of bleeding disorders, including both hemophilia and non-hemophilia indications.Catalyst expects to expand and strengthen this pipeline of novel engineered proteases in the coming year.”

Total payments under the collaboration, which began in June 2009, could exceed $500 million, exclusive of royalty payments.