Seattle Genetics co-founder eases out

Perry Fell, the co-founder of Seattle Genetics, is leaving the company's day-to-day operations to his partner and two star management recruits and hunting for opportunities to run another biotech company.

Fell will keep close ties — he remains chairman of the board and a consultant and will keep the stock that give him a 6 percent stake in the company. But his services are sure to be in demand to run another company soon: At 46, he is an accomplished immunologist with an MBA and experience building a successful biotech company.

Fell said he's not ready to announce his next move, but he pointed to his connections as a board member of Seattle-based International Therapeutics and as an adviser to NanoString Technologies, a spinout from Leroy Hood's Institute for Systems Biology.

Seattle Genetics stock rose 7 percent after the news, hitting a 52-week high to close at $7. Fell said he's "very excited" about Seattle Genetics as it marches ahead in human tests of its targeted cancer drugs. He's also enthusiastic about Nanostring, a computational biology startup that is trying to pin down its first big round of venture capital and find a chief executive.

"I'm very excited about what (Nanostring) is doing and helping them to put together the right package to get this moving," Fell said.

Fell, Seattle Genetics' founding chief executive, secured rights to its intellectual property and attracted investments from Microsoft co-founders Paul Allen and Bill Gates and from biotech pioneer Genentech. Fell helped lead Seattle Genetics' initial public offering in 2001 and stepped down as chief executive in 2002, turning over the top job to his scientific partner and co-founder, Clay Siegall.

Siegall said Fell is his business mentor, and the two remain close friends. They plan to continue talking about Seattle Genetics almost daily.

"When you're facing large important decisions or the daily ups and downs of running a company, it is priceless to have a confidante who has been there," Siegall said. "Perry is my confidante, and he will continue to be."

Fell's role has changed this year as Siegall took over and the company grew to 100 employees. He helped recruit former Immunex chief scientist Doug Williams to run the company's research and former Eli Lilly executive Michael McDonald to run clinical trials. Attorney Eric Dobmeier was promoted to handle business partnering and legal matters.

"There are few proven entrepreneurs in Seattle like Perry, and when they become available, they are always hot commodities," said Robert Nelsen, a venture capitalist with Arch Venture Partners in Seattle. "I hope he stays in Seattle and starts something else."

Before Fell and Siegall founded Seattle Genetics in 1997, they were scientists at Bristol Myers Squibb's Seattle research center when the company pulled the plug on a dozen years of research into genetically engineered antibodies as "smart bombs" against cancer.

The duo licensed intellectual property from their former employer and raised venture capital to push it further. Later that year, the Food and Drug Administration approved the world's first antibody drug against cancer, validating their approach.

Six years later, the company is still working to push a drug onto the market or into the final stage of human testing. It has one drug in mid-stage clinical testing for lung cancer, with preliminary results suggesting it can prolong lives in tandem with chemotherapy. It also has two cancer drugs in earlier phases of testing.

Luke Timmerman: 206-515-5644 or ltimmerman@seattletimes.com