LigaChem Biosciences announced on the 11th that it will receive milestone payments for the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) candidate that was exported to the Japanese pharmaceutical company Ono Pharmaceutical Co.
The company did not disclose the amount received, but it is estimated to be around 12.6 billion won. LigaChem Biosciences noted that "the amount of the short-term milestone payment corresponds to more than 10% of our consolidated financial statement last year's sales of 125.898 billion won" and added, "the technology transfer contract may be terminated if clinical trials, approval, and commercialization are not realized, and there is no obligation for our company to return the milestone payments upon termination of the contract."
"LCB97" is a drug candidate developed by LigaChem Biosciences through its ADC platform "ConjuALL." It targets the protein L1CAM, which is highly expressed in cancer cells.
Earlier, LigaChem Biosciences signed a technology transfer and platform contract worth up to $700 million (approximately 943.4 billion won) with Ono Pharmaceutical in October last year. This was the first package contract to export exclusive global rights for the development and commercialization of LCB97 along with the ConjuALL platform, which allows the development of multiple drug candidates.
This is the third time LigaChem Biosciences has received a milestone payment from Ono Pharmaceutical. Previously, the company reported receiving LCB97-related milestones in November last year and March this year.