NEW YORK – Sotio Biotech and LegoChem Biosciences on Tuesday entered into a license agreement that gives Sotio access to LegoChem's antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) platform to discover up to five ADC programs and targets.
The deal is worth up to $1.03 billion total, including a $29.5 million upfront payment and near-term milestone payments to LegoChem. The company is eligible for future milestone payments based on development and regulatory achievements, plus royalties on net sales.
Sotio will be responsible for research, development, manufacturing, and commercialization of the ADC products. LegoChem will support Sotio's research activities and the manufacturing of components that are specifically related to its proprietary platform and the linker-payload technologies.
LegoChem's ADC platform, called ConjuAll, uses a site-specific bioconjugation method and a stable beta-glucuronide linker to design homogeneous plasma-stable ADCs. The company, headquartered in South Korea, has also developed and out-licensed ADCs to companies like Takeda, Pyxis Oncology, and Fosun Pharma.
Sotio, based in Prague, will use the platform to broaden its oncology pipeline, CEO Radek Spisek said in a statement. The company has several cancer drugs in preclinical development and plans to file an investigational new drug application for its lead program, SOT102, which targets Claudin18.2, by the end of 2021.