LG Chem Vice Chairman & CEO Shin Hak-cheol poses with Son Ji-woong, head of LG Chem’s life science business; and Daniel Passeri, chief executive of Cue Biopharma, LG Chem’s partner, and otjers at ceremony to open LG Chemk’s global innovation center in Boston, the United States,in June.

LG Chem, which absorbed LG Life Science, the bio and pharmaceutical subsidiary of LG Group, in 2017, is accelerating efforts to develop innovative new drugs such cancer, immune disorder and metabolic disease medications.

In 1981, LG Chem became the first Korean company to establish a genetic engineering research institute. LG Chem has been credited with having R&D capabilities that the company has accumulated for the past 38 years, armed with world-class production process technology, and experiences commercializing synthetic drugs, bio drugs, and vaccines.

LG Chem’s Life Science Business Division, which amalgamated LG Life Science, has established a foundation of committing itself to the development of new drugs based on bountiful investment resources. LG Chem, designating fields of priority development by factoring in market entry possibility and opportunities, is adopting more aggressive R&D strategies.

The division saw R&D outlays surging from 91.2 billion won in 2016 before the merger to 123.8 billion won last year, after merger. The latest figure accounted for 22 percent of the 575.1 billion won the company logged in sales, representing the biggest-ever ratio of investments out of sales among Korean pharmaceutical companies.

LG Chem plans to plunk down 189 billion won in R&D investments, almost twice more than last year’s figure. The division plans to continue to set aside more than 25 percent of its sales for the R&D sector, an LG Chem official said.

LG Chem saw a rise in the number of new drug trials and R&D manpower. LG Chem saw the number of new drug trials, including those of an early R&D stage, jump from 10 in 2016 prior to merger to 30 in 2018 after merger. R&D manpower increased from 330 people in 2016 to 410 people in 2018. LG Chem plans to raise R&D manpower to about 450 people this year.

LG Chem is concentrating on not only raising its own R&D capabilities, but also securing new drug trials through more aggressive open-innovation strategies.

The company is now expanding networking with foreign bio and research institutes who own innovative technologies by dramatically expanding its business development department.

Last year, LG Chem signed a deal to enter a multi-target strategic collaboration with Cue Biopharma, an innovative immunotherapy company listed in the NASDAQ, to develop multiple Immuno-STAT biologics focused in the field of oncology.

The collaboration provides LG Chem with the rights to develop and commercialize, in Asia, Cue Biopharma’s lead product, CUE-101, as well as Immuno-STAT biologics that target T cells against two additional cancer antigens.

CUE-101 is entering a clinical test Phase I. LG Chem and Avacta, a U.K.- based pharmaceutical company, have joined forces to develop a next-generation protein therapeutics that can overcome the limitations of existing antibody drugs.

A view of Levacalm Tab, a hypertension drug. (Photos: LG Chem)

Early this year, LG Chem signed joint research deal into stem cell therapy with Medipost, a Korean stem cell therapy company. In March, LG Chem signed a contract with PDC*line Pharma, a biotech company developing a new class of potent and scalable antigen presenting cell, based on a proprietary cell line of Plasmacytoid Dendritic cells (PDC line).

The deal includes a development and commercialization collaboration agreement, opens new markets to PDC line Pharma and expands the global footprint of its PDC line-based cancer vaccine.

In June, LG Chem opened a global innovation center in Boston, the United States to develop local clinical tests in the United States and expand open innovation there.

LG Chem plans to expand the number of new drug trials from the current 4 to 8 by 2020, with the goal of becoming a world-class pharmaceutical company.