Seattle Genetics, Millennium In Pact

Millennium, the cancer drug arm of Takeda Pharmaceuticals, will pay Seattle Genetics $60 million up front for access to brentuximab vedotin, an antibody-drug conjugate in late-stage studies to treat several types of lymphomas. Takeda wins the rights to commercialize the drug outside of the U.S. and Canada; in exchange, Seattle Genetics will receive half the development costs of the drug and up to $230 million in milestone payments. Seattle says it expects Takeda to contribute at least $75 million in development costs over the next three years. The deal comes just days after Gen­entech told Seattle Genetics it was ending their collaboration deal for dacetuzumab, an antibody against lymphomas.