Seagen Inc. filed a court complaint against Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. over its cancer-focused drug delivery technology.

In the latest case, which was filed in the U.S. District Court of the Eastern District of Texas, Seagen claims Daiichi Sankyo's metastatic breast cancer candidate Enhertu, or DS-8201, violates patents related to the company's antibody-drug conjugate, or ADC, technology.

The Oct. 19 complaint is separate from an ongoing arbitration brought by Seagen against the Japanese pharmaceutical company over the ownership of the ADC technology.

At the crux of the dispute between the companies is the technology supplied by Bothell, Wash.-based Seagen to Daiichi Sankyo under a seven-year collaboration that allowed the company to develop ADCs for cancer.

ADCs refer to a class of biopharmaceutical drugs designed as a targeted therapy for cancer. They differ from chemotherapy as they are meant to target and kill tumor cells while sparing healthy cells.