Samsung said Tuesday it had decided to invest in Phrontline Biopharma, a Chinese biotechnology firm with an antibody-drug conjugate platform and pipeline, through Samsung Life Science Fund.
Samsung Life Science Fund was jointly established by Samsung C&T, Samsung Biologics and Samsung Bioepis to discover new technologies and businesses in the biotechnology sector.
Although the amount of the investment remained undisclosed, Samsung said it would search for opportunities to strengthen research and development and cooperation, as Phrontline Biopharma is developing bispecific and dual-payload-based antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, that can be used for cancer treatments.
The Chinese biotech firm is carrying out global clinical trial for its bispecific antibody-based ADC program while preparing for trials of its bispecific, dual-payload ADC candidate within the first quarter of next year.
Samsung Bioepis inked a partnership with Phrontline Biopharma in October last year to conduct joint research on the development, production and commercialization of ADC candidates. Under the agreement, Samsung Bioepis secured co-development rights for two of Phrontline’s ADC pipeline programs and obtained an exclusive license to apply one of the Chinese firm’s payload technologies to its own development assets.
“Investing in Phrontline after partnering with them, we will secure meaningful technological influence in the global ADC market,” said Seo Min-jeong, vice president at Samsung Bioepis. “We will continue to further strengthen our preparation for future technology through various partnerships and investments.”
Since its launch in 2021, Samsung Life Science Fund has invested across a wide range of biopharmaceutical technologies including gene therapies, blood protein analysis, generative AI-enabled protein drug discovery and gene editing platforms.
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