Pharma companies fiercely compete to develop ADC drugs

Competes to develop of antibody-drug conjugates for cancer

Many Korean biopharmaceutical companies participate in ADC developments

Is searching for candidate substances in the form of an open innovation due to its high difficulty in development

Competition among domestic pharmaceutical companies to secure new antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technology has been intensifying in Korea.

 

With ADC drugs recently demonstrating an effect on various cancer types, there is an analysis that the industry is making active measures to secure new ADC technologies.

 

According to the pharmaceutical industry on the 29th, not only pharmaceutical companies such as Samjin Pharm and Chong Kun Dang, but also bio companies such as LegoChem Biosciences, ABL Bio, PinotBio, AIMed Bio, Celltrion, Samsung Biologics, and Lotte BioLogics have entered the ADC market.

 

ADCs are drugs made by connecting antibodies that bind to specific target antigens on the surface of tumor cells to cytotoxic payloads with a linker.

 

ADC has the advantage of increasing the treatment effect while minimizing side effects due to the target selectivity of the antibody and the apoptosis activity of the drug, which induces the drug to work selectively to target cancer cells.

 

Domestic pharma and bio companies start developing ADC candidates through open innovation… is seeking promising ADC candidates The domestic pharmaceutical and bio industry joined in the ADC development game through open innovation.

 

Accordingly, an overall platform technology has been implemented in all stages of development from early-stage candidate discovery to preclinical trials.

 

To date, LegoChem Biosciences has successfully licensed-out 9 contracts in the field of ADC.

 

Starting with technology transfer to China's Fosun Pharmaceutical Group in 2015, the company has licensed-out 5 pipeline platform technologies to Amgen in December last year.

 

LegoChem Biosciences owns 2 proprietary platform technologies, ‘ConjuAll’ and ‘LegoChemistry.’ ABL Bio is developing ABL201, an ADC candidate targeting blood cancer, and ABL202, targeting solid cancer.

 

ABL Bio also successfully licensed-out ABL201 to bio venture TSD Life Sciences.

 

Also, ABL202 is being developed by incorporating LegoChem Biosciences linker technology.

 

PinotBio is developing PINOT-ADC, which was developed by changing the chemical structure of camptothecin, a topoisomerase class anticancer drug.

 

The candidate substance that linked PINOT-ADC to the HER2 targeting antibody was confirmed to have an anti-tumor effect in a preclinical mouse model.

 

, Ahn-Gook Pharmaceutical, Celltrion, and Lotte Biologics, who eyed PinotBio’s technological capabilities, have made equity investments.

 

AIMed Bio is developing its solid cancer-targeted ADC candidate, AMB302.

 

AMB302 is a novel drug candidate targeting FGFR3 for glioblastoma and bladder cancer.

 

Its first clinical trial is scheduled to begin next year.

 

AIMed Bio received an equity investment from a Life Science Fund created by Samsung C&T, Samsung Biologics, and Samsung Bioepis last September.

 

Samjin Pharm started ADC development in earnest after signing an agreement for joint R&D with an ADC specialist, Novelty Nobility.

 

Under the agreement, the partners will be investigating the use of Samjin Pharm’s new payload with Novelty Nobility’s linker technology.

 

The company is known to be developing differentiated payloads, unlike existing ADC new drug development companies.

 

Chong Kun Dang will begin exploring candidate substances using the Dutch ADC company Synaffix’s ADC technology.

 

Chong Kun Dang plans to secure the rights to use Synaffix’s 3 ADC platform technologies, GlycoConnect, HydraSpace, and an undisclosed linker-payload from the toxSYN platform, to develop ADC anticancer drugs.

 

Samsung Biologics, Celltrion, and Lotte BioLogics are also expanding their ADC contract development and manufacturing (CDMO) business in addition to investing in new drug development companies.

 

ADC development difficult…only around 10 candidates became commercialized

Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s ADC drug Enhertu

Domestic pharmaceutical and bio companies are eager to develop ADC drugs because of the excellent effect demonstrated by ADC drugs developed to date.

 

In particular, relatively recently released drugs are attracting attention as they have secured superior data over existing treatments for various cancer types.

 

However, due to its difficulty in development, only a handful of drugs have been commercialized as of now.

 

Since Pifzer’s Mylotarg (gemtuzumab ozogamicin) was released in early 2000s, Takeda’s Adcetris (Brentuximab vedotin), Roche’s Kadcyla (Trastuzumab emtansine), Pfizer’s Besponsa(Inotuzumab ozogamicin), and Roche’s Polivy (Polatuzumab vedotin-piiq) were successfully commercialized.

 

Recently, Astellas’ Padcev (enfortumab vedotin), Gilead’s Trodelvy (sacituzumab govitecan), and Daiichi Sankyo and AstraZeneca’s Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) were also released into the market.

 

The relatively recently released drugs have been demonstrating their efficacy in areas with a high unmet need or where existing treatments were ineffective, and have been scoring various therapeutic indications like immune-oncology drugs.

 

In the case of Enhertu, it is currently approved as a treatment for HER2-positive breast cancer and gastric cancer in Korea but has also shown effectiveness in areas that lack treatment options, such as triple-negative breast cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer.

 

Trodelvy is also looking to secure various indications.

 

Currently, it has been approved as a treatment for triple-negative breast cancer in Korea, but its efficacy and safety are also evaluated for HR+/HER2- breast cancer and non-small-cell lung cancer.