Celltrion Advances to Secure 'ADC' Technology... Forms Alliance with Pinobio Following Iksuda

15 Target ADC Linker-Payload Platform Technology Exercise Options
Advance Payment 1 Billion KRW... Total 1.8 Trillion KRW if All 15 Exercised

Incheon Songdo Celltrion Plant 2 Overview. / Incheon - Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Chunhee Lee] Celltrion announced on the 18th that it signed an option agreement on the implementation of antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) linker-payload platform technology with domestic biotech company Pinobio on the 17th.

Through this agreement, Celltrion secured the rights to utilize Pinobio's ADC linker-payload platform 'PINO-ADC' for up to 15 targets. Celltrion plans to apply PINO-ADC to its pipeline candidate compounds under development to create ADC anticancer drugs targeting solid tumors.

The contract structure involves Celltrion paying a total upfront fee of 1 billion KRW for all 15 technology implementation options, and additional upfront fees are paid immediately each time an option is exercised for ADC technology by target. In addition, milestone payments and royalties will be paid according to development stages such as clinical trials, approval, and commercialization. If this technology is utilized for all 15 targets, the total contract value could increase up to $1.2428 billion USD (approximately 1.7758 trillion KRW).

The ADC linker-payload technology, which has recently gained attention, combines antibodies that react only to specific antigens with highly effective chemical drugs (payloads), enabling the drug to selectively act on cells expressing the antigen. This technology allows for maximum therapeutic effect with minimal drug administration and targeted delivery of drugs only to the intended cells, making ADC therapeutics highly notable in the oncology field recently.

In addition to its existing antibody anticancer drug portfolio, including the hematologic cancer treatment 'Truxima (MabThera biosimilar)', breast and gastric cancer treatment 'Herzuma (Herceptin biosimilar)', and metastatic colorectal cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and ovarian cancer treatment 'Vegzelma (Avastin biosimilar)', Celltrion expects that securing the ADC platform technology implementation option rights will enable the development of a wider variety of anticancer drugs. Besides Pinobio, Celltrion is also jointly developing ADC therapeutics with the UK-based ADC developer Iksuda Therapeutics. A Celltrion official stated, "We are achieving concrete results" and added, "We have high expectations for expanding our anticancer drug portfolio in the future."

Celltrion also signed equity investment and joint research agreements with Pinobio. Through this, both companies aim to build a long-term partnership and concentrate their development capabilities to achieve the common goal of developing ADC therapeutics.

A Celltrion official said, “The introduction of the ADC linker-payload platform technology implementation option has added momentum to the development of ADC anticancer drugs, which is progressing as a future growth engine business,” and “We will actively expand new growth engines through continuous collaboration with promising biotech companies like Pinobio that possess leading technologies.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.