iM Securities said on the 8th that LigaChem Biosciences is firmly maintaining global competitiveness based on its differentiated platform technology and strong cash position. It kept its "buy" rating and raised its target price to 220,000 won from 200,000 won. The previous session's closing price was 136,200 won.
Jeong Jae-won, an analyst at iM Securities, said the target price was raised by reassessing the value of the ROR1 ADC (antibody-drug conjugate) pipeline.
Reflecting the positive clinical data recently released by partner CStone, LigaChem Biosciences raised the pipeline value of ROR1 ADC by 68% to 1.3709 trillion won from 815.5 billion won. Including this, the appropriate corporate value of LigaChem Biosciences, calculated by summing the values of major pipelines and platforms such as HER2, TROP2, and B7-H4, came to about 8 trillion won.
While China-based bio corporations have been rapidly encroaching on the ADC market with aggressive research and development investment and vast patient pools, LigaChem Biosciences' proprietary technology is assessed to hold a differentiated edge.
Jeong said, "In the global ADC market recently, the key question has shifted from speed to how to solve off-target toxicity and resistance," adding, "LigaChem Biosciences' independently developed linker-payload platform 'ConjuALL' enables control of a uniform drug-to-antibody ratio (DAR) and powerfully controls toxicity by using a beta-glucuronide linker that dramatically improves blood stability."
Jeong added, "By refining the highly toxic PBD drug into a 'prodrug' form that is activated only inside cancer cells, the company secured both safety and the bystander effect."
Jeong also said the funding situation is positive. Jeong noted, "Following Orion's investment, the company was recently selected as the first direct investment target of the government-led Public Growth Fund, enabling it to tout a strong cash base," and added, "The market expects new licensing-out (L/O) news, but given there is no financial burden at present, a strategy to conduct late-stage trials in-house to maximize the pipeline's potential value is also highly effective."
From the second half of this year, key data from multiple pipelines in clinical trials are scheduled to be released one after another.
HER2 ADC, the closest to commercialization, is expected to complete phase 3 in China in the second half and file a new drug application (NDA). In the global trial underway by Iksuda, it recorded a high response rate (ORR 75%) in patients resistant to Enhertu, indicating significant potential for value upside, according to Jeong. ROR1 ADC, which released strong phase 1 data at the start of the year (ORR 100%, CR 96%), is set to announce additional data at major conferences such as ASH in the second half to demonstrate a toxicity advantage. In addition, an interim readout for CD19 ADC (IKS03) and an update related to the phase 1 trial of B7-H4 ADC (LNCB74) are planned within the second half of this year.