Seattle Genetics Gets $12M From Agensys

Seattle Genetics, the Bothell, WA-based developer of cancer drugs, said today it will get a $12 million upfront fee from Agensys, an affiliate of Japan-based Astellas Pharma, under a renegotiated partnership to develop targeted antibody treatments loaded with toxins to make them more potent. Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) struck its first partnership with Agensys in January 2007, but the new partnership allows for the two companies to collaborate on multiple new targets of cancer drugs.

Author: Luke Timmerman

Luke is an award-winning journalist specializing in life sciences. He has served as national biotechnology editor for Xconomy and national biotechnology reporter for Bloomberg News. Luke got started covering life sciences at The Seattle Times, where he was the lead reporter on an investigation of doctors who leaked confidential information about clinical trials to investors. The story won the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award and several other national prizes. Luke holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and during the 2005-2006 academic year, he was a Knight Science Journalism Fellow at MIT.