SOUTH KOREA —Celltrion and Genuv, two Korean companies, have entered into a joint agreement for research and development with the potential to earn a nine-figure sum.
The partnership aims to use Genuv’s Shine Mouse platform to discover antibodies and could lead to further collaborative R&D projects in the future.
Although there is no upfront payment, Genuv will receive milestone payments of up to US$25 million if Celltrion opts for a program in the clinic, and up to US$680 million in milestones per program if sales exceed US$7.5 billion.
Genuv focuses on oncology and neurodegenerative diseases and already has several antibodies in its pipeline, including GNUV205, a tumor-specific IL-2-based immunocytokine anticancer drug, and GNUV201, another anti-PD-1 drug candidate.
The company claims that its platform generates antibodies with greater diversity than those developed using conventional mice.
Additionally, Genuv is close to completing its second platform, NuvoFc, which skips the mice and directly discovers human antibodies for bi- and multi-specifics.
Genuv has a pipeline of seven candidates, one of which is SNR1611, a MEK1/2 inhibitor that is currently in Phase II trials for ALS and in the IND-enabling phase for Alzheimer’s.
Over the past few years, Celltrion has been expanding and investing heavily in research and manufacturing facilities.
In 2020, the company invested US$453 million in a new research center and manufacturing facility in Incheon, Korea, and in 2019, it announced plans to build a US$514 million biologics plant in China.
Celltrion’s honorary chairman, Jung Jin Seo, has set an ambitious goal of launching one biosimilar product every year and reaching a total of 18 products by 2030.
The company’s website lists seven biosimilars, indicating that it is well on its way to achieving Seo’s goal.
In September 2020, regulators approved Celltrion’s biosimilar, Vegzelma, for six cancer types, making it the company’s third cancer biosimilar to be approved in the U.S.
Meanwhile, as reported by the Korea Herald, Celltrion Healthcare has launched Vegzelma, a biosimilar referencing Avastin (bevacizumab), on the Japanese market.
Bevacizumab is used in the treatment of several cancers, including colorectal, nonsquamous non-small cell lung cancer, glioblastoma, kidney, cervical, and renal cell carcinoma.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare approved the biosimilar in September 2022.
In the same month, it was also approved in the United States, and the European Medicines Agency granted it marketing authorization in August 2022.
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