Drug candidates developed by Korean biotech companies such as Alteogen and LegoChem Biosciences have recently achieved milestones in licensing agreements.

Alteogen said on Monday it obtained a milestone of $13 million from its technology transfer partner.

The milestone is based on the entry of an agent applied to Alteogen's SC formulation modification platform, Hybrozyme, into a phase 3 clinical trial. Altheogen previously licensed out the platform technology, which uses recombinant hyaluronidase ALT-B4, to its partner in 2020.

"We have received formal notification from our partner that the trial has commenced and have invoiced them accordingly," said Alteogen.

Alteogen said the latest milestone brought the commercialization of ALT-B4's first-in-class product closer. The company plans to proceed with cGMP-level Process Performance Qualification (PPQ) certification at its European contract manufacturing organization (CMO) facility.

"The conversion of intravenous antibody therapies to a subcutaneous injection using hyaluronidase is a reliable method that has never failed in clinical trials," said an Alteogen official. "We are progressing to the stage of discussing and preparing for commercial supply after approval with our partner."

On the same day, LegoChem Biosciences also announced the receipt of the milestone.

LegoChem said it had received a $3.5 million milestone payment on Thursday from Fosun Pharma, its Chinese partner for LCB14 (HER2-ADC), for the initiation of a phase 3 trial. 

In August 2015, LegoChem signed an agreement with Fosun Pharma for the rights to commercialize LCB14 in China worth approximately 20.8 billion won.

Fosun has been conducting phase 2 trials in non-small cell lung cancer, colorectal cancer, gastric cancer, and various other solid tumors since last year, starting with a phase 1 trial in breast cancer. It is now initiating a phase 3 trial of LCB14 versus Kadcyla in patients with locally advanced or metastatic HER2 breast cancer who have received Herceptin and Taxane.

In addition to the phase 3 trial, LegoChem has signed a total of 12 technology transfer agreements with Takeda, Iksuda Therapeutics, CStone Pharmaceuticals, and SOTIO Biotech. Thus, the company expects to receive significant milestone revenue in the future, it said. 

Lunit, a medical AI company, also received a milestone payment from its global partner Guardant Health last month. This follows a joint research and development agreement signed in June 2021. The milestone fee is worth 1.3 billion won, or 19.7 percent of the company's revenue at the end of last year.