Orion Invests $415M in Korean Biotech LegoChem, Secures Majority Stake
16 Jan 2024
License out/inPhase 3ADCAcquisition
Pictured: Businessmen shaking hands after a deal/iStock, PeopleImages
Finnish pharma Orion Corporation on Monday dropped approximately $415.6 million to buy a 25% stake in Korean biotech LegoChem Biosciences, according to local news outlet The Chosun Daily.
The transaction, which LegoChem disclosed to investors through Monday’s regulatory filing, makes Orion the largest shareholder of the antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) developer. Orion carried the purchase out through a Hong Kong-based subsidiary and the companies expect to close the deal on March 29, according to The Chosun Daily.
Once finalized, LegoChem will become part of Orion’s corporate family but will retain its current frameworks and management.
LegoChem’s core technology—dubbed ConjuALL—gives its ADC therapies a “trinity of improved properties,” according to the biotech’s website. The platform allows for the stable conjugation of the payload at a specific site, overcoming the typically random attachment that is typical in other ADCs, the company contends. The platform also enables the cancer-selective activation of both the linker and the toxic payload.
For Orion, the LegoChem transaction is part of its R&D refocusing efforts, first announced in March 2022, designed to steer the company toward cancer and pain—and away from neurodegenerative and rare diseases.
At the time, Outi Vaarala, Orion’s senior vice president of R&D, said in a statement that “the idea is to focus investment in these areas and to develop treatments for patients as efficiently as possible, rather than making smaller investments in a larger number of research areas.”
Since then, Orion has expanded its partnerships in the oncology space. Last week, it inked a research collaboration agreement with Glykos to develop next-generation ADCs targeting solid tumors.
Orion is also partnered with MSD—the international name for Merck—for a candidate therapy for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. Last week, the companies launched two pivotal Phase III studies under this agreement, evaluating the efficacy and safety of the investigational CYP11A1 inhibitorCYP11A1 inhibitor in combination with hormone replacement therapy.
For LegoChem, Orion is the latest pharmaceutical company to take notice of its ADC. In December 2023, the Korean biotech announced that it signed a $1.7 billion license agreement with J&J’s subsidiary Janssen to develop an anti-Trop2 ADC.
In December 2022, LegoChem also entered into a research and license pact with Amgen, which gave the pharma access to its proprietary platform to design, develop and potentially commercialize ADCs for up to five targets. Considering the upfront payment and all milestones under the deal, LegoChem is eligible to receive up to $1.25 billion plus royalties.
Tristan Manalac is an independent science writer based in Metro Manila, Philippines. He can be reached at tristan@tristanmanalac.com or tristan.manalac@biospace.com.
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