Seattle Genetics Achieves Milestone Following European Commission Approval of Roche’s Polivy® (Polatuzumab Vedotin)
Business WireJanuary 21, 2020, 8:00 AM EST
Seattle Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq:SGEN) today announced that it will receive a milestone payment from Roche triggered by European Commission conditional marketing authorisation for Polivy® (polatuzumab vedotin). Polivy is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) that utilizes Seattle Genetics’ technology. It was developed and is commercialized by Roche/Genentech. Polivy was approved in combination with bendamustine plus MabThera® (rituximab) (BR) for the treatment of adult patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), who are not candidates for a haematopoietic stem cell transplant. Polivy was granted PRIME (PRIority MEdicines) designation by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) for the treatment of people with R/R DLBCL in 2017.
"In addition to our two marketed ADC products ADCETRIS® (brentuximab vedotin) and the recently FDA-approved PADCEV™ (enfortumab vedotin-ejfv), the European Commission approval of Polivy highlights the increasing importance of ADCs in the treatment of cancer," said Clay Siegall, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Seattle Genetics. "Across our internal and collaborator pipelines, there are more than ten ADCs in clinical development employing our proprietary technology. We continue to lead in the field of ADCs with our novel linker systems, cell-killing payloads and conjugation technologies."
Seattle Genetics’ ADC technology combines the specificity of monoclonal antibodies, innovative linker systems and potent cell-killing agents to treat cancer. The technology has been licensed to several companies, including Roche/Genentech and GlaxoSmithKline. Under the terms of these agreements, each licensee company has rights to use the technology with antibodies against specified targets. The licensee is responsible for research, product development, manufacturing and commercialization. Seattle Genetics is entitled to receive fees, progress-dependent milestone payments and royalties on worldwide net sales of any resulting ADC products.
