Seattle Genetics Rises on Positive Trial Data

Seattle Genetics Inc. (SGEN), maker of the Hodgkin lymphoma drug Adcetris, is trading at its highest level in more than two months after reporting positive data from additional studies on the medicine.

The drugmaker gained 6.7 percent to $19.74 at 1:10 p.m. New York time, the highest price for shares of the Bothell, Washington-based company since Nov. 3.

Adcetris was approved in August for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma for whom other therapies have failed, the first new medicine cleared by U.S. regulators for the disease since 1977. The drug had a 65 percent response rate according to interim results of a Phase 2 clinical trial of patients with cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, the company said yesterday at a medical meeting in San Francisco. Three stages of clinical trials are usually required for U.S. regulatory approval.

Adcetris, known chemically as brentuximab, is Seattle Genetics’s first product. Sales of the medicine may surpass $275 million in 2014, according to the average estimate of three analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Flinn in San Francisco at rflinn@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net