Seattle Genetics Gets $8M From Pfizer

Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) said today it has licensed its technology for making “empowered antibodies” to Pfizer, the world’s largest drugmaker. Seattle Genetics will receive an $8 million upfront payment, could get more than $200 million in milestone payments, and stands to collect royalties if Pfizer can develop a product. In exchange for the cash, Pfizer is getting the right to develop souped-up antibodies against one molecular target for cancer. The Seattle Genetics method, which makes it possible to combine targeted antibodies with toxins that make them more potent cell-killing agents, has been licensed by a number of other big drugmakers, including Genentech, Millennium:The Takeda Oncology Company, Bayer, and GlaxoSmithKline. Seattle Genetics says its technology licensing activity has generated more than $145 million in revenue to date.

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.