LG Chem to develop cancer immunotherapy candidates with Cue Biopharma

LG Chem, a chemicals and life sciences company under South Korea’s LG Group, said Monday that it will start developing new cancer immunotherapy candidates licensed in from US-based Cue Biopharma.

The two companies have entered a strategic collaboration agreement to co-develop three cancer immunotherapy candidates developed by Cue Biopharma, which are currently in the pre-clinical trial stage.

The collaboration provides LG Chem’s life sciences division with the rights to develop and commercialize in Asia three cancer-targeting biologics -- Cue Biopharma’s lead product CUE-101 as well as Immno-STAT biologics that target T cells against two additional cancer antigens. 

Under the terms of the collaboration, Cue Biopharma will engineer the selected Immuno-STATs for up to three alleles, while LG Chem will leverage its experience in biologics manufacturing to establish a quality chemistry, manufacturing and controls process for development and commercialization of the selected candidates.

As part of the deal, LG Chem will pay Cue Biopharma an undisclosed upfront payment and make $5 million of equity investment at a 20 percent premium.

It will also pay up to $400 million in research, development, regulatory and sales milestone payments, as well as tiered royalties on future sales if the drugs are commercialized worldwide.

“We are very pleased to enter this strategic collaboration with Cue Biopharma; it is more than a licensing deal, it is a partnership with a shared vision and great strategic fit,” Son Jee-woong Son, president of LG Chem Life Sciences, said in a statement.

“By combining Cue Biopharma’s pioneering approach to selectively modulating disease-associated T cells with LG Chem’s biologics capabilities in development and manufacturing, we aim to accelerate bringing this novel therapy to a greater number of cancer patients.”

Immunotherapies are a novel, proprietary class of biologics engineered to selectively modulate the human immune system to treat cancer, autoimmune and chronic infectious diseases.

T-cells, central components of the immune system, require multiple distinct signals to become fully activated, which usually come from dendritic, or antigen-presenting, cells. Cue is developing a platform technology that can deliver activating signals directly to disease-relevant T-cells.

By Sohn Ji-young (jys@heralcorp.com)