Move part of cost-cutting measures for ZymoGenetics.
ZymoGenetics licensed the rights to eight of its drug products to Seattle Life Sciences, in exchange for milestone and royalty payments should SLS successfully develop any of the products. The agreement also entitles ZymoGenetics to an equity interest in SLS that will be issued once SLS obtains venture capital financing.
The deal allows fledgling SLS to rapidly build a pipeline of potential clinical candidates, according to Shane M. Kelly, chairman of the board of SLS.
“The assets licensed to SLS are early stage preclinical candidates outside our areas of focus and, as a result, were not being developed internally,” says Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D., CEO of ZymoGenetics.
The company announced cost-cutting measures at the end of April, including reducing its work force by a third and moving to a more collaborative strategy for its drug candidates, while focusing its own research on its core strength of immunology.
