Seagen


Seagen Inc. is an American biotechnology company focused on developing and commercializing innovative, empowered monoclonal antibody-based therapies for the treatment of cancer. The company, headquartered in Bothell, Washington, was considered the industry leader in antibody-drug conjugates or ADCs, a technology designed to harness the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies to deliver cell-killing agents directly to cancer cells, with its development of drugs such as Adcetris, Padcev, and Tivdak. Antibody-drug conjugates are intended to spare non-targeted cells and thus reduce many of the toxic effects of traditional chemotherapy, while potentially enhancing antitumor activity.
The company's flagship product Adcetris is commercially available for four indications in more than 65 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Japan and members of the European Union.
To expand on the clinical opportunities of brentuximab vedotin, Seattle Genetics is conducting a broad clinical development program
to evaluate its therapeutic potential in earlier lines of its approved indications as well as in a range of other lymphoma and non-lymphoma settings. The company is jointly developing brentuximab vedotin in collaboration with Takeda Pharmaceutical Company. Under the terms of the collaboration, Seattle Genetics has full commercialization rights to brentuximab vedotin in the United States and Canada. Takeda has exclusive rights to commercialize the product candidate in all other countries.
In addition to brentuximab vedotin, Seattle Genetics' product pipeline includes enfortumab vedotin, being co-developed with Astellas Pharma, tisotumab vedotin, being co-developed with Genmab, SGN-LIV1A, an ADC targeting LIV-1, and several immuno-oncology agents in phase 1 studies.
In January 2018, the company announced it would acquire Cascadian Therapeutics for $614 million.
In September 2020, Merck & Co announced it would purchase $1 billion of Seagen's common stock, with both companies co-developing lead treatment: ladiratuzumab vedotin.
In November 2022, the company announced the appointment of David R. Epstein as Chief Executive Officer and Director.
Pfizer agreed to acquire Seagen in March 2023 at an enterprise value of $43bn.

Collaboration agreements

Seattle Genetics has collaboration agreements with Takeda Oncology Company to develop and commercialize brentuximab vedotin. The company also has collaboration agreements for their ADC technology with a number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, including AbbVie, Bayer Celldex Therapeutics, Inc., Daiichi Sankyo, Genentech, Inc., GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Inc., and PSMA Development Company LLC, as well as ADC co-development agreements with Agensys, Inc., an affiliate of Astellas Pharma, and Oxford BioTherapeutics Ltd.

Technology

MMAE-based

Seattle Genetics' proprietary monomethyl auristatin E or MMAE-based antibody-drug conjugate technology, employed in brentuximab vedotin, empowers monoclonal antibodies to treat cancer. Brentuximab vedotin, for example, links the chimeric anti-CD30 monoclonal antibody via a protease-cleavable linker to MMAE. This ADC employs a linker system that is designed to be stable in the bloodstream but to release MMAE upon internalization into CD30-expressing tumor cells. This approach is intended to spare non-targeted cells and thus reduce many of the toxic effects of traditional chemotherapy while potentially enhancing antitumor activity.

History

Early years

Seattle Genetics was founded in 1997, by Henry Perry Fell, Jr. and Clay Siegall, and is headquartered in Bothell, Washington, a suburb of Seattle. The company completed an initial public offering in March 2001, and prior to its acquisition by Pfizer, it was traded on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol SGEN, and was a component of the Nasdaq-100. As of December 2016, the company has more than 900 employees throughout the United States.

2009

In 2009, when it appeared that ADCETRIS could reach the market, the company realized that commercial skills would need to be grown in-house and/or acquired. This led to a decision to grow a commercial team to address the United States and Canadian markets, and a marketing collaboration with Takeda to cover the rest of the world. By 2018, however, the company was confident it could conduct a global commercialization venture.

2010

2011

2012

2013

2014

2015

2016

2020

2022

2023

Pfizer later announced that it would abandon its plans to build a large manufacturing facility in Everett, Washington, which was scheduled to open in 2024.

Product portfolio and pipeline