What’s going on with Seagen?
Seagen Inc. (SGEN) shares inched down after the Bothell, Wash.-based antibody-drug conjugate therapy company and Yantai, China-based biopharmaceutical firm RemeGen Co., Ltd. entered an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement to develop and pursue commercialization of disitamab vedotin, a novel HER2-targeted ADC.
Disitamab vedotin received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Breakthrough Therapy designation in 2020 for use in second-line treatment of patients with HER2-expressing, locally advanced or metastatic urothelial cancer who have previously received platinum-containing chemotherapy.
RemeGen last year announced that the FDA approved its Investigational New Drug application for a Phase II clinical trial in mUC, while disitamab vedotin is conditionally approved in China. In July, the National Medical Products Administration of China also accepted a New Drug Application for disitamab vedotin in mUC.
Shares of SGEN were down 0.92% to $159.52 on Monday morning.
What does this mean for SGEN?
The agreement calls for Seagen to make a $200 million upfront payment to exclusively license rights to disitamab vedotin outside of RemeGen’s territory. RemeGen will retain development and commercialization rights for Asia, excluding Japan and Singapore.
Seagen will pay RemeGen up to $2.4 billion in potential total milestone payments based upon the achievement of specified development, regulatory and commercialization goals across multiple indications and products. RemeGen will be entitled to a tiered, high single digit to mid-teen percentage royalty based on net sales of disitamab vedotin in Seagen’s territory.
As monotherapy, disitamab vedotin has shown to inhibit tumor in clinical trials in several solid tumor types, including urothelial, gastric and breast cancer. It also showed potential in combination with a PD-1 inhibitor in urothelial cancer.
“This collaboration leverages Seagen’s world-class expertise and knowledge of ADC development, manufacturing and commercialization to maximize the potential of disitamab vedotin,” said Clay Siegall, Ph.D., president and CEO, Seagen. “It also complements our existing franchises and our deep and diverse portfolio of innovative anti-cancer therapies for patients in need. The addition of disitamab vedotin as a late-stage asset with multiple development opportunities aligns strategically with our plans to continue expanding our global footprint and deliver meaningful therapies to patients around the world.”
SGEN has a Long-Term Technical Rank of 52. Find out what this means to you and get the rest of the rankings on SGEN!
Seagen Inc. (formerly known as Seattle Genetics) is a biotech firm that develops and commercializes therapies to treat cancers. Seagen's therapies are based on antibody-drug conjugate technology that utilizes the targeting ability of monoclonal antibodies to deliver cell-killing agents directly to cancer cells. The company's lead product, Adcetris, has received approval for six indications to treat Hodgkin lymphoma and T-cell lymphoma. Other approved products include Padcev for bladder cancer and Tukysa for breast cancer. The company has several other oncology programs in pivotal trials. Seagen also licenses its antibody-drug conjugate technology to several leading biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.
