Local developers of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are now attracting investors’ attention after Gilead Sciences agreed to acquire Immunomedics in possession of the technology in a mega-deal recently.
LegoChem Biosciences is currently Korea’s leading firm in ADC, therapies targeted to kill tumor cells and spare healthy ones.
The company licensed out its investigational ADC to Iksuda Therapeutics for 274.8 billion won ($234.1 million) in April. Recently, its ADC technology was recognized at an ADC international conference.
LegoChem Bio won the runner up for Best ADC Platform Technology, one of the World ADC Awards 2020 awards at the World ADC Summit.
To award the Best ADC Platform Technology, ADC expert judges evaluate ADC technologies' innovativeness and commercialization potential. This year, 32 ADC platform developers were chosen as candidates, and LegoChem Bio from Korea and Synaffix from the Netherlands won the award.
LegoChem Bio’s ADC technology is called “Scaffold Based Approach.” On Sept. 7, the company signed an agreement with China’s Harbour Biomed to develop an ADC.
LegoChem Bio also invested 13.3 billion won in the R&D environment and moved the office and R&D facilities to Daejeon in July.
Alteogen, another ADC developer, is also drawing attention by releasing the result of the phase-1 trial on an ADC recently.
From Sept. 3-4, the company disclosed the outcome of the phase-1 study on biobetter ADC, called ALT-P7, to treat breast cancer at the meeting of the Korean Society of Medical Oncology (KSMO).
The trial enrolled 27 patients with end-stage breast cancer who have received systemic chemotherapy, including prior HER2-targeted therapy.
Alteogen said one of the participating patients had progression-free survival (PFS) for over 600 days. The ALT-P7-treated patients had the median PFS at 6.8 months. The phase-1 study aims to assess the survival of all patients.
“After we complete the phase-1 study, we will work on combining the ADC with other drugs, in addition to the ADC for treating breast cancer and gastric cancer,” an Alteogen official said.