OBT, Seattle Genetics form strategic collaboration to discover novel ADCs for cancer

Seattle Genetics, Inc. (NASDAQ:SGEN) and Oxford BioTherapeutics (OBT) today announced that they have formed a strategic collaboration to jointly discover novel antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) for cancer. Under the collaboration, OBT will generate panels of monoclonal antibodies against novel tumor-specific antigens identified using its proprietary Oxford Genome Anatomy Project (OGAP^®) database. The antibodies generated by OBT will then be screened for activity using Seattle Genetics' ADC technology. The resulting ADCs may be selected by each company for further development and commercialization.

"This collaboration is directly aligned with our goal of identifying novel ADC targets to expand our early-stage product pipeline," said Jonathan Drachman, M.D., Senior Vice President, Research and Translational Medicine at Seattle Genetics. "Through the agreement, we contribute our know-how and proprietary ADC technology and gain access to novel cancer targets obtained from OBT's expertise in target discovery. We believe that this type of multi-product collaboration maximizes the chances for success and capitalizes on each company's strengths."

"We are delighted to be collaborating with Seattle Genetics in this alliance which we believe will add multiple ADC candidates to OBT's rapidly developing pre-clinical product pipeline. ADCs are beginning to transform the outlook for many cancer patients and OBT believes that with its antibody pipeline, it can make an important contribution to the development of this exciting new class of therapeutics. We are looking forward to working with Seattle Genetics to provide improved therapies for patients suffering from cancer," said Christian Rohlff, Chief Executive Officer of OBT.

Under the terms of the multi-year, multi-product agreement, OBT and Seattle Genetics will each have an equal number of alternating options to select programs from among the preclinical ADCs identified for exclusive, worldwide development and commercialization. Each company will receive undisclosed progress-dependent milestone payments and royalties on net sales of any resulting ADCs developed by the other party.