For more than 20 years, monoclonal antibodies have provided therapeutic benefit to patients with cancer, autoimmune diseases and other serious medical conditions. Early antibody-based therapies revolutionized the treatment of cancer by targeting malignant cells and limiting damage to normal tissue. This resulted in therapies that were better tolerated and could be used in combination with chemotherapy to improve patient outcomes without significant increases in toxicities.

At Seattle Genetics, we are developing promising monoclonal antibody therapies, such as lintuzumab, dacetuzumab and SGN-70, which elicit therapeutic effect by binding to their respective targets and triggering cell death either through direct cell signaling processes or by activation of immune responses. Because of their favorable specificity and tolerability profiles, engineered antibodies can typically be used for multiple treatment cycles over long periods of time, or in combination with other cancer treatments, resulting in improved antitumor activities. We have shown that lintuzumab and dacetuzumab have single-agent antitumor activity at well-tolerated doses in clinical trials. We are currently conducting combination clinical trials with these antibodies for a variety of hematologic malignancies.

While engineered antibodies have provided clinical benefit in several disease indications, many antibodies lack sufficient intrinsic antitumor activity to be used as therapeutics. Seattle Genetics’ proprietary antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology is the next step in improving antibody-based therapies. Our ADC technology empowers antibodies by linking them to potent drug payloads, thereby combining the specificity of engineered antibodies with the potent cell-killing effects of chemotherapy. Brentuximab vedotin (SGN-35), our lead ADC program, has demonstrated promising data in clinical trials, validating the therapeutic utility of this technology. We are also advancing SGN-75, an ADC targeting CD70, and ASG-5ME, an ADC that we are co-developing with Agensys, in phase I clinical trials.

With robust capabilities in both antibody engineering and ADC innovation, we are striving to take antibody-based therapies to a new and more effective level.