LG Chem Renews License with Avacta for IND Studies

LG Chem Life Sciences (LG Chem), the life sciences division of the South Korean LG Group, is moving forward with investigational new drug (IND)-enabling studies that prompted the company to exercise its renewal option as part of an ongoing collaboration with Avacta Group, a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company. The renewal option has triggered a license renewal fee payment of $2 million to Avacta, according to a June 30, 2022 company press release.

Under the agreement, LG Chem has the exclusive rights to develop and commercialize Avacta’s Affimer programmed death ligand 1 (PD-L1) inhibitor with Affimer XT serum half-life extension on a global basis and for a range of indications. LG Chem will progress the PD-L1/XT candidate by starting pre-clinical studies, which are intended to form the basis of an IND submission.

Avacta and LG Chem had entered into a multi-target development agreement in December 2018 to develop Affimer therapeutics in several disease areas. In 2020, the companies expanded their partnership to include Avacta’s Affimer XT technology, which can be used to control the amount of time a drug spends in the blood, according to the press release.

“The initiation of IND-enabling studies represents a significant step towards first-in-human clinical trials of the Affimer platform, which is a key value driver for the technology and for Avacta,” said Alastair Smith, CEO, Avacta Group, in the release.

Source: Avacta Group