Celltrion said it had increased its stake in Iksuda Therapeutics, a U.K.-based antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer, to 47.05 percent through direct investment and Mirae Asset-Celltrion New Growth Fund 1.
As a result, Celltrion and the new growth fund rose to become the largest shareholders of Iksuda.
The acquisition of the additional shares of Iksuda follows Celltrion and Mirae Asset Group previously signing a contract to participate in Iksuda Series A funding through Mirae Asset-Celltrion New Growth Fund 1 in June 2021
Under the accord, the two companies planned to invest $47 million into Iksuda.
Celltrion and Mirae Assets Group completed the execution of half of the investment in 2021 and finally executed the other half after Iksuda met certain milestones.
Iksuda is a company that develops next-generation ADCs for the treatment of intractable cancer. Its main pipelines include anticancer drug candidate IKS014, which received technology transfer from Legochem Bioscience, a Korean drug development company, and ISK03, a treatment for diffuse giant B-cell lymphoma.
Celltrion expects that it will be able to develop various anticancer drugs using Iksuda’s ADC platform technology as it already has experience in developing anticancer drugs such as Truxima (blood cancer treatment), Herzuma (breast and stomach cancer treatment), and Vegzelma (metastatic colorectal cancer treatment).
“Celltrion is actively collaborating with and investing in biotech companies in various fields with promising technologies and platforms to develop new drugs,” a Celltrion official said. “The company plans to make multifaceted efforts to increase its influence in the field of ADC treatment, which has recently attracted worldwide attention.”
Meanwhile, Celltrion’s acquisition of Iksuda’s additional shares comes as the net loss of the latter is growing.
In the first half of 2021, at the time of the equity investment, the cumulative net loss of Iksuda Therapeutics was about 5.49 billion won ($4.44 million) and increased to about 8.92 billion won in the first half of 2022.
According to Celltrion’s fourth-quarter report, the cumulative net loss of Iksuda Therapeutics Limited was about 13.52 billion won in the third quarter of last year.