LigaChem Biosciences secured its third milestone payment from Ono Pharmaceutical, with the Korean biotech company disclosing the payment exceeded 12.5 billion won ($9.1 million) for progress on their antibody-drug conjugate LCB97.
The Daejeon-based firm has been methodically collecting these development payments since November, suggesting the drug’s progression toward clinical trials remains on schedule. However, LigaChem declined to specify the exact payment amount, describing it only as representing more than 10% of last year’s 125.9 billion won in sales.
These milestone payments have substantially boosted LigaChem’s financial performance. First-quarter revenue jumped 65.6% year-over-year to 51.6 billion won ($37.6 million), representing an unusually high 40.9% of the previous year’s total annual sales achieved in just three months.
Ono committed up to $700 million in total payments when it licensed LCB97 in October, marking the Japanese pharmaceutical company’s first entry into the competitive ADC space. The drug targets L1CAM, a protein expressed in various solid tumors, though it remains in preclinical development.
LigaChem has built a portfolio of ADC licensing deals, including a $1.7 billion agreement with Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit for another candidate, LCB84. The company’s concentration of revenue from milestone payments rather than product sales underscores the early-stage nature of its drug development pipeline.
