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Despite clearing phase 3 with flying colors, LG Chem just axed its most advanced gout drug—shutting down a global trial and shifting its R&D firepower to cancer, where the company sees a clearer commercial runway and faster payoff.
LG Chem shelved its lead gout drug despite strong phase 3 data, citing U.S. market risks—and redirected its $273 million R&D push toward cancer instead. (Credit: Getty Images)
LG Chem shelved its lead gout drug despite strong phase 3 data, citing U.S. market risks—and redirected its $273 million R&D push toward cancer instead. (Credit: Getty Images)
The move ends EURELIA-2, a 2,600-patient trial comparing once-daily tigulixostat—a non-purine xanthine oxidase inhibitor designed to reduce uric acid buildup in gout patients—to allopurinol, the long-established standard for gout. Conducted across the U.S., Europe, and Korea, the study was LG Chem’s largest bet on metabolic disease—and now marks its biggest exit. The company confirmed it’s halting not just the study, but all internal development of the drug.
“It was a strategic call,” a company spokesperson told Korea Biomedical Review, citing the high cost of development and growing concerns about the U.S. market’s return potential. “Yes, we’ve already invested hundreds of billions of won, but we saw more growth potential in oncology.”
That call wasn’t about safety or efficacy. Tigulixostat hit its targets in EURELIA-1, a separate phase 3 trial released last year, where nearly half of patients maintained serum uric acid levels below 6 mg/dL after six months, compared to just 2 percent in the placebo group. Most side effects were mild. No deaths were reported.
Still, the drug stumbled at the finish line—not in the clinic, but in the spreadsheet. LG Chem ran the numbers and didn’t like what it saw. Commercial analysis pointed to a high risk of cost recovery in the U.S., especially when stacked against the revenue potential of oncology, a spokesperson said. With a 400 billion won ($273 million) R&D budget to optimize, the company decided to walk away.
The exit clears room for three lead cancer programs: ficlatuzumab for head and neck cancer, AV-380 for cancer cachexia, and LB-LR1109, an immunotherapy developed in-house that targets LILRB1. LG Chem said it expects the first wave of launches to begin in 2028, with timelines tightening as resources are refocused.
“By reallocating resources away from gout, we’re enabling timely development of our lead cancer assets,” the spokesperson said, adding that LG Chem is also actively scouting late-stage licensing deals to accelerate the path to market.
The strategic reset comes as LG Chem is under pressure to deliver. After posting a 252 billion won operating loss in the fourth quarter of 2024—its first in five years—the company told investors in its February earnings call that it would recheck every pipeline investment “from scratch” and lean hard into market-facing oncology programs.
All are being led or co-developed by AVEO Pharmaceuticals, the U.S. oncology outfit LG Chem acquired in a $566 million deal in late 2022 that delivered not just Fotivda (tivozanib), an FDA-approved renal cell carcinoma drug with patent protection potentially stretching to 2039, but also a seasoned clinical development team and a late-stage pipeline ready for global expansion.
One of those assets is ficlatuzumab, now in a global phase 3 trial (FIERCE-HN) for HPV-negative head and neck cancer. The study compares ficlatuzumab in combination with Erbitux (cetuximab) against Erbitux alone, with overall survival as the primary endpoint. The regimen has already secured fast track status from the FDA.
LB-LR1109, which entered a U.S. phase 1 last year, represents a next-generation approach to immunotherapy. Designed to activate T cells, NK cells, and macrophages by targeting LILRB1, the drug offers broader immune activation than traditional PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors—a mechanism the company says could set it apart in solid tumors.
Meanwhile, tigulixostat, though cut from LG Chem’s internal pipeline, still has a lifeline in China. The company remains partnered with Innovent Biologics, which secured exclusive Chinese rights in 2022 through a licensing deal worth up to $95.5 million. Innovent is currently running a phase 2 trial at Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, where the prevalence of hyperuricemia is estimated to reach as high as 14 percent among adults.
Back in Korea, LG Chem said it is "staying open" to non-oncology opportunities, including follow-ups to last year’s rare obesity drug out-license to Rhythm Pharmaceuticals, a deal valued at nearly $300 million. The company added that it would continue to evaluate external opportunities “with a sharper lens on commercial viability,” but the core strategy remains focused on oncology.
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Kim Ji-hye jkim404@docdocdoc.co.kr
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