Seattle Genetics Licenses Antibody-Drug Linking Technology to Daiichi Sankyo

Seattle Genetics, the developer of targeted antibody drugs for cancer, said today it has licensed its technology for linking antibodies to potent cell-killing agents to Daiichi Sankyo. The Tokyo-based drugmaker will get exclusive rights to develop antibody-drug combination treatments against a single target found on multiple types of tumors. Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) will receive $4 million upfront, milestone payments based on progress in development, and royalties worth a “mid-single digit” percentage of sales if research leads to a product.

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.