Korean pharmaceutical firms and bio companies actively make “open innovation.” Noting that antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) therapies are receiving the spotlight in cancer treatment, related businesses say in unison they would speed up their research and development.

Samjin Pharm said Wednesday that it had signed an agreement with Novelty Nobility to research new ADC drugs jointly.

Based on this agreement, Samjin plans to develop new-mechanism payloads (low molecular weight compounds) to be used for ADCs. Novelty Nobility will apply its linker technology, PREXISE-L, to new payloads to be developed by Samjin and develop “linker-payload combinations,” according to an official at Samjin.

(Credit: Getty Images)
(Credit: Getty Images)

ADC-linker payload technology combines antibodies that only respond to specific antigens with therapeutic chemicals, or payloads, allowing drugs to act on cells expressing antigens selectively.

The two companies also plan to discover and develop candidates for next-generation ADC drugs after developing linker-payload combinations.

“Recently, the importance of linkers and payloads in the ADC anticancer drug market has grown more than ever. Therefore, we decided to conduct joint research with Samjin Pharma because we need linker-payload combinations to take the upper hand in both efficacy and toxicity of ADC drugs,” said Park Sang-kyu, CEO of Novelty Nobility.

A Samjin Pharma official also explained the company’s plan.

“Based on Samjin’s excellent know-how in developing low molecular weight compounds, we will speed up developing new drug substances, including immunotherapies optimized for ADC, and break the limitations of existing anticancer drugs through this,” said Lee Soo-min, head of Samjin Pharma’s Research Center.”

This is not the first open-innovation cooperation between domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies to develop new ADC drugs.

Last month, Ahngook Pharm and Pinot Bio signed a business agreement to develop next-generation anticancer treatments based on ADC, using the latter’s linker-payload technology.

“After Daiichi Sankyo’s Enhertu and Gilead’s, Trodelvy produced innovative results with excellent efficacy, Pinot Bio is drawing attention because of its next-generation source technology that can excel over those treatments,” Ahngook Pharm CEO Won Deok-gwon said. “We expect the recent agreement to provide a starting point for developing innovative treatments.”

In October, Celltrion also concluded a contract with Pinot Bil to introduce an option agreement to implement ADC platform linker-payload platform technology.

The agreement has secured Celltrion the right to apply PINOT-ADC, Pinot Bio’s ADC linker-payload platform, to 15 targets. In addition, Celltrion plans to develop ADC anticancer treatments targeting solid tumors.

Along with the option introduction agreement to implement platform technology, Celltrion signed an accord for equity investment into Pinot Bio and joint research with the latter. Celltrion is also developing ADC treatments jointly with the U.K.-based ADC developer, Iksuda Therapeutics.

“Through this option introduction to implement linker-payload platform technology, we could add impetus to developing ADC anticancer drugs as our future growth engine,” a Celltrion official said. “We will continue cooperating with companies with leading technology like Pinot Bio to find new growth engines.”

Last month, LegoChem Bioscience signed a 1.6 trillion won ($1.26 billion) agreement with Amgen to conduct joint research and technology transfer. LegoChem’s transferred technology included linker-payload technology and a binding method optimized for bonding antibodies to specific antibody parts.

Through the contract, Amgen could have the right to develop and commercialize ADC treatments globally concerning five targets using LegoChem’s ADC platform technology.

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