David Epstein, Seagen CEO

Seagen qui­et­ly doles out cell ther­a­py patent rights, but scope re­mains un­clear

On the heels of its $43 bil­lion buy­out by Pfiz­er, Seagen is slim­ming its cell ther­a­py ef­forts.

The big biotech signed a li­cens­ing deal with Gra­cell Biotech­nolo­gies last week, grant­i­ng the small­er part­ner rights to cer­tain patents, SEC doc­u­ments show. Gra­cell will con­duct pre­clin­i­cal and clin­i­cal re­search on the un­named cell ther­a­py pro­grams and be able to bring up to five to the mar­ket.

The scope of Thurs­day’s deal and con­tent of the Seagen patents, how­ev­er, re­main a mys­tery for now. Nei­ther com­pa­ny is­sued a press re­lease about the deal and no fi­nan­cial terms were dis­closed in the SEC fil­ings. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives for Seagen and Gra­cell did not im­me­di­ate­ly re­spond to re­quests for com­ment.

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