LegoChem Biosciences strike a 24 billion won out-licensing deal with China granting the production of a drug for treating multidrug-resistant pathogens

– LegoChem Biosciences and RMX Biopharma enter into a licensing agreement –

Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF), a consortium of three health-related Korean Ministries (the Ministry of Science, ICT, and Future Planning; the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy; and the Ministry of Health and Welfare), has announced that the use of KDDF-funded technology of LegoChem Biosciences, LCB01-0371 – a new oxazolidinone compound to treat multidrug-resistant pathogens – has been licensed to a Chinese biotechnology company which had recently been founded by former employees of various global pharmaceutical companies.

KDDF announced on December 12th that LegoChem had signed an exclusive licensing agreement with the research-oriented company RMX Pharma in China, which grants the Chinese firm the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize LCB01-0371 in Chinese market.

KDDF selected LCB01-0371 as one of the promising drug candidates on February 2012 and made a financial support for the development of an oral antibiotic in phase 1 clinical trials over a period of 17 months.

Under the agreement, LegoChem will receive 24 billion won as an up-front cash payment with additional royalties.

Globally, China holds the second-largest market share in antibiotics. According to a 2015 WHO report, this country topped the list in the prevalence of newly-diagnosed multidrug-resistant tuberculosis. The market research reports from Visiongain, the global leading business portal, forecast that China’s antibiotic-market is expected to make a double-digit growth from 2015 to 2020—and the market volume is projected to reach about 20 trillion won by 2021.

“We are excited to have an initial partnership with RMX, a company with excellent drug development competence in the rapidly-increasing Chinese antibiotic market. The agreement further allows us to broaden and accelerate other ongoing discussions with our global partners based on the clinical results from RMX and our own findings,” Kim Yong-ju, CEO of LegoChem, explained.

Joo Sang-aun, CEO of KDDF, said: “China has the largest anti-infective market and its sales volume can reach up to 20 trillion won in 2021. It is very encouraging that LCB01-0371 is now globally recognized.”

“We expect that our fully-fledged R&D support program will move forward in entering a global market,” Joo further noted.

Since its establishment in 2009, KDDF has firmly established sound business infrastructure ideal for the development of global drugs. Of 358 applications submitted to date, it has supported a total of 104 projects through all phases of development. As a result, 17 technologies at different phases of development have been successfully transferred both at home and abroad in a number of therapeutic fields.