Few things are better in biotech than holding the rights to a sought-after technology. Earlier in the week, budding biopharma Seattle Genetics
Seattle Genetics is letting Daiichi Sankyo take advantage of its antibody-drug conjugate technology, which is designed to help build more potent and focused anti-cancer compounds. Other drugmakers, like Progenics Pharmaceuticals
What's alluring about a platform technology in the biopharmaceutical space is that if it's effective, multiple drugmakers could sign partnership deals to get access to it. If everything works out and drugs using the platform technology gain approval, the technology developer can reap years and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of royalties (before its patent on the technology expires, at least).
Drugmakers like PDL BioPharma
Considering that Seattle Genetics' compounds all have a lot of ripening to do in the pipeline (most of its drug candidates are in phase 2 testing), there are a lot of expectations built into its $650 million market cap. On the other hand, although there will surely be setbacks along the way, Seattle Genetics' shares also have a lot of appreciation potential if its platform tech works as designed.