NEW YORK (AP) — Seattle Genetics Inc. and Danish drugmaker
Genmab AS said today they will expand their collaboration on potential
treatments for cancer.
The companies said Genmab will use Seattle Genetics
technology to create a drug that targets a protein found in many solid tumors
and blood cancers. Seattle Genetics received an undisclosed upfront payment
from Genmab, and it will have an option to help develop and sell the drug after
early-stage clinical testing is complete. If Seattle Genetics exercises that
option, it will make a payment to Genmab and the companies will share costs and
profits equally.
The Bothell, Wash.,
company will get fees, milestone payments and mid-single digit royalties on
sales if it does not exercise the development option.
Genmab will use Seattle Genetics technology in studying an
antibody called HuMax-CD74. In September the companies announced a
collaboration involving technology from Seattle Genetics and Genmab’s HuMax-TF
technology, which could be used in treatments for cancers of the pancreas and
colon.