Seattle Genetics acquires Cascadian Therapeutics and with it tucatinib a tyrosine kinase inhibitor to treat Breast Cancer

Seattle Genetics, Inc.and Cascadian Therapeutics, Inc. announced the signing of a definitive merger agreement under which Seattle Genetics has agreed to acquire Cascadian Therapeutics. Under the terms of the agreement, Seattle Genetics will pay $10.00 per share in cash, or approximately $614 million. The transaction was unanimously approved by the Boards of Directors of both companies. Cascadian Therapeutics� most advanced program is tucatinib, an investigational oral, small molecule tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) that is highly selective for HER2, a growth factor receptor that is overexpressed in multiple cancers, including breast, colorectal, ovarian and gastric. Tucatinib is currently being evaluated in a randomized global pivotal trial called HER2CLIMB for patients with HER2-positive (HER2+) metastatic breast cancer, including patients with or without brain metastases. Tucatinib has been evaluated as a single agent and in combination with both chemotherapy and other HER2-directed agents including Herceptin (trastuzumab) and Kadcyla (trastuzumab emtansine). Results from phase 1b trials showed that the combination of tucatinib, capecitabine and trastuzumab was generally well-tolerated and demonstrated clinical activity in patients with and without brain metastases. The data support the ongoing pivotal trial and the potential role of tucatinib in earlier lines of metastatic breast cancer.