Conclusion

As can be seen from this case study of SGEN the development of a drug is a long and costly process and its journey to market is highly unpredictable. Much can happen in the time between the development of a compound in the laboratory and getting it into the clinic. In the case of SGEN its drug development was dependent on the coming together of many different technologies before testing them out in patients. SGEN’s success was largely dependent on its ability to carve out a niche for itself in the field of ADC drugs in the cancer field and persuade other collaborators to join in on its efforts and license its technology.

The company finally managed to get its first drug, Adcetris, on the market in 2011, thirteen years after it started its operations. It took another eight years before the company won approval for another one of its drugs, PADCEV. The company's success with two of its drugs needs to be balanced against its failure with many other drug candidates (table 4). This has meant the company has inevitably accumulated major losses. The company has also continued to operate at a loss because of its continued investment in research and development to expand its pipeline. As is highlighted by the company's development of vadastuximab talirine, which ended in 2017 after five years of effort and it had gone through the costly process of phase III trials, not all of the investment has paid off.

Another important feature to note in the story of Seattle Genetics is how far the scientific platform developed by the company has enabled other companies to develop their drugs. This is a poignant reminder of just how far investments made in research and development by one company can benefit others in the biopharmaceutical arena. The lessons learnt by Seattle Genetics from failures with its early drug candidates to develop Adcetris also highlights just how much the process of drug discovery and development is not a simple linear line of progress. Much can be learnt from the errors along the way. The key is knowing how far a project needs to go before a new direction has to be taken.

Table 4: SGEN's drug candidates and targets showing stage of development