LigaChem’s L1CAM flip
Less than two years after LigaChem acquired the antibody used as the basis for an ADC targeting L1CAM, the South Korean company has flipped the resulting asset to Japan’s Ono Pharmaceutical. The ADC in question is LCB97, and Ono has agreed to a total biodollar amount of $700m (the up-front wasn’t split out) for global rights to this, as well as access to LigaChem’s ADC technology to generate new molecules in a separate research agreement. The source of LCB97 is an anti-L1CAM MAb developed by the private Swiss biotech Elthera, and licensed in February 2023 to LigaChem, which at the time was known as LegoChem. The terms of that deal weren’t disclosed, but it’s likely that Elthera is eligible for part of the windfall LigaChem just got from licensing LCB97 on to Ono. At the time of the original deal Elthera called its project a first-in-class MAb against L1CAM, a neuronal cell adhesion molecule also known as CD171, and OncologyPipeline bears this out: just two other projects are being investigated against this target, and neither uses an antibody modality.
L1CAM-targeting projects
| Project | Company | Modality | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| JCAR023 | Bristol Myers Squibb | Autologous Car-T | Ph1 academic trials in prostate cancer & neuroblastoma |
| LCB97 | LigaChem/ Ono | ADC | Preclinical, based on Elthera MAb, licensed by LigaChem to Ono in Oct 2024 |
| Unnamed | Elthera/ LigaChem | Naked MAb | Preclinical, licensed by Elthera to LigaChem in Feb 2023 |
| 177Lu-huCE7 | CIS Pharma | Radioconjugate | Preclinical data published in EANM in Sep 2023 |
Source: OncologyPipeline.
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