Seattle Genetics Starts Lymphoma Trial

Seattle Genetics (NASDAQ: [[ticker:SGEN]]) and its partner, Millennium: The Takeda Oncology Company, said today they are starting a clinical trial of the brentuximab vedotin “empowered antibody” for patients newly diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease. The drug has been shown effective in a small study for patients with relapsed forms of Hodgkin’s, and is currently being tested in a pivotal study among that sicker patient group. The new study among newly diagnosed patients will enroll about 40 people at multiple sites in the North America. Patients will get the experimental treatment in combination with a common chemotherapy regimen.

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.