Scrip takes a look at the increasingly competitive landscape of Korean antibody-drug conjugate developers, which are now vying to catch up with their global rivals in the hot area.

LegoChem’s hefty out-licensing deal with Amgen seems to further prove global pharma’s keen interest in the Korean ADC leader’s technology, said to be differentiated with safer margins.

Plus deals involving GC Cell/Rivaara Immune, Sperogenix/Santhera, EOFlow/Zihipp, Grand/ITM, Tasly/Sutro, LegoChem/Iksuda, Nuance/Aerogen, Frontier/AffiRiS and Piramal/Yapan.

Although there weren’t many large-scale partnerships as in previous years, Korean biopharma firms were involved in a broad range of deals across diverse therapeutic areas in 2020, with ADCs, oncology and domestic alliances emerging as key trends.