Seattle Genetics is now Seagen. The name and branding change comes on the heels of a fast and broad global approval for Tukysa in metastatic breast cancer.
The way the company sees it, the name swap "reflects who we are today, as we expand our presence beyond the Pacific Northwest and outside of the United States to support the commercialization of Tukysa globally,” CEO Clay Siegall said in a press release.
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The drug, in combination with Roche’s Herceptin, received an FDA nod in April, four months ahead of schedule and for a broader indication than its studied population. Seagen is rolling out Tukysa amid the COVID-19 pandemic virtually through its 100-plus sales and medical affairs team, Siegall said in April, and it's working with Merck to market Tukysa outside of North America and Europe.
With the new name, Seagen has also adopted a new logo and moved its corporate website from the longer name to seagen.com. The company said it will provide more information directly to suppliers and partners on the name change and rollout.
Tukysa is the third approval for Seagen—following Adcetris for blood cancer and Padcev in bladder cancer—and the company also boasts a “robust” pipeline of more cancer treatments in the works.
Adcetris was Seagen’s first approval in 2011, with Padcev following later in December 2019 and Tukysa quickly after. Recently, Merck announced a $1.6 billion licensing deal for Seagen’s investigational antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) ladiratuzumab vedotin, which is already being paired with Keytruda in clinical trials for metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
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Seagen, meanwhile, joins a handful of other biopharma companies that use “gen” or “gene” as the second syllable in their names. Giants Amgen, Biogen and Bristol Myers Squibb's Celgene are all on that list, and like Seagen, they began as small biotechs.