NextCure and LegoChem Biosciences team up to develop antibody drug conjugates

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Pic:getty/marcinklapcynski (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

NextCure and LegoChem Biosciences have announced a collaboration and co-development agreement focused on generating a B7-H4 antibody drug conjugate (ADC) and options for two additional targets.

The B7-H4 ADC will draw on NextCure’s B7-H4 antibody and LCB’s ConjuAll ADC technology.

Both parties will equally share the costs to develop the molecules, as well as profits on any commercialized products. The parties will use their respective product development capabilities to generate the B7-H4 ADC and advance it to the clinic.

In addition, there are options for the parties to nominate two additional targets for ADC development beyond B7-H4.

NextCure is a Beltsville, Maryland headquartered clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company dedicated to immunomedicines.

“We are excited to work with LCB, and apply ConjuAll, a leading ADC technology, to add a new treatment modality to our B7-H4 program,” said Timothy Mayer, NextCure’s Chief Operating Officer.

“We remain committed to developing novel immunomedicines using multiple modalities to address the significant unmet needs of cancer patients not adequately addressed by available therapies.”

South Korea’s LegoChem Biosciences was founded in 2006 with a focus across the research and development of ADCs, antibiotics, anti-fibrotic and anti-cancer therapeutics based on proprietary platform technologies.

“The initiation of this collaboration with NextCure represents another important milestone for LCB as we continue to build our ADC pipeline and seek to demonstrate the potential of our ADC platform in a wide range of different tumors,” said Yong-Zu Kim, LCB’s Chief Executive Officer.

“B7-H4 ADC would potentially offer a first-in-class opportunity for a target expressed on a broad range of tumor types, and I look forward to progress in early stage studies.”