ZymoGenetics Inc. has licensed rights of eight early stage product candidates to Seattle Life Sciences. ZymoGenetics received rights to potential milestones and royalties, in exchange for licensing Seattle Life Sciences (SLS) rights to develop the product candidates. In addition, ZymoGenetics is entitled to an equity interest in Seattle Life Sciences that will be issued in connection with SLS obtaining venture capital financing.

"The assets licensed to SLS are early stage preclinical candidates outside our areas of focus and, as a result, were not being developed internally," said Douglas E. Williams, Ph.D., chief executive officer of ZymoGenetics. "Through transactions like this, we have the potential to generate value from our patent portfolio without investing our own capital by finding committed licensees like SLS. This is consistent with our overall goal to effectively manage our internal research and development spending."

Shane M Kelly, chairman of the board of SLS said, "By acquiring the assets associated with a valuable collection of potent biological agents, we plan to rapidly build a pipeline of clinical candidates for advancement. Product opportunities include recombinant protein-based drug candidates and monoclonal antibody-based inhibitors of factors believed to affect disease pathology. The intellectual property acquired will provide opportunities for more than eight drug development programs which address clinical indications with significant unmet clinical need, and range from niche opportunities to those applicable to large markets with strong growth potential."

ZymoGenetics creates novel protein drugs that help patients fight disease. The company developed and markets Recothrom Thrombin, topical (Recombinant). Other product candidates are focused on cancer, autoimmune and viral diseases.

Seattle Life Sciences (SLS) is a product-driven, preclinical stage biotechnology company that has been formed to focus on the development of a portfolio of novel protein therapeutic candidates licensed from the prolific discovery programmmes at ZymoGenetics, Inc.