"2026 will be a crucial year for ABL Bio, with technology exports and clinical trial results both mattering."
On the 14th (local time) at the JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, the United States, Chief Executive Lee Sang-hoon of ABL Bio, who met with ChosunBiz, said, "We will move beyond technology exports to build in-house new drug development capabilities and be reborn as corporations that hold multiple asset at the phase 2 clinical stage," laying out goals for the new year.
Lee assessed that the global pharma and biotech industry has reached an inflection point. Big Pharma, finding it increasingly difficult to seek innovation solely within the United States, is in earnest turning its gaze to "East," and opportunities are opening for Korean bio corporations.
ABL Bio has "Grabody" technology that helps drugs cross the blood-brain barrier (BBB) effectively. Buoyed by successive large-scale technology exports last year, it entered the KOSDAQ's 10 trillion club in market capitalization.
The company signed a technology transfer agreement worth up to 2.063 billion pounds (about 4 trillion won) last year with GSK plc, followed by a technology transfer and joint research agreement worth up to $2.602 billion (about 3.8 trillion won) with Eli Lilly and Company.
Lee said, "On site this time, I felt that the meeting of West and East has become truly important," adding, "Recently, global Big Pharma has introduced a raft of Chinese bio corporations' technologies, and I sensed that the next opportunity after China lies in 'Korea.'"
◇ "We will advance to phase 2" strategy behind the new U.S. subsidiary
During the event, the corporations whose presentation Lee closely followed was Denmark's biotech company Genmab. The company licensed out (technology export) a bispecific antibody to U.S. pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J), succeeded in commercialization, and created a structure to receive royalties. However, it worried about lacking an in-house pipeline and chose a strategy to acquire and grow the Dutch biotech company Merus.
Lee said, "Genmab was not a company with a large pipeline from the start," adding, "It started with technology, did technology transfer, and reinvested that revenue into clinical development, so now it is not a 'technology company' but 'a company that understands clinical and commercial.'"
It built a virtuous cycle of "license-out → royalties → building its own pipeline → commercialization." Lee said, "Seeing Genmab gave us confidence that the direction we are taking is not wrong."
ABL Bio's official launch last November of the U.S. subsidiary Neok Bio was a strategy grounded in this assessment. Neok Bio, a 100% subsidiary established to oversee global clinical development of bispecific antibody ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates), officially launched last November and is leading development of key ADC pipelines such as ABL206 and ABL209.
Lee said, "ABL Bio carried out a 140 billion won rights offering, which brought overhang concerns and share price pressure, but money was essential to expand clinical trials." Lee added, "Technology transfer brings in money but has clear limits," and said, "So we set up another company in the United States to directly carry programs to phase 2 and chose a strategy to aim for a bigger exit, such as M&A or selling development assets."
Lee explained, "Because the company holds equity in Neok Bio, revenue from Neok Bio's exit ultimately returns to ABL Bio," adding, "It is similar to the Yuhan Corp. model." Lee stressed, "Clinical is the flower of biotech," and said, "Korean corporations must create multiple asset that have advanced to phase 2."
◇ "BBB shuttles are essential for Big Pharma… ABL001's clinical trial is on track"
Lee said, "BBB shuttle (carrier) technology has already become a 'must-have' for global Big Pharma." The BBB is a protective barrier that blocks external substances from entering the brain, and the technology to cross it is key to developing central nervous system (CNS) therapies.
In fact, Novartis, Roche, Genentech, AbbVie, J&J, Sanofi, GSK, and Eli Lilly and Company have all successively signed introduction agreements with corporations that have BBB shuttle technology, including ABL Bio.
Lee also emphasized the potential to combine with siRNA (a therapeutic technology that suppresses gene expression). ABL Bio developed a technology to deliver siRNA to the brain and nerves by using the IGF-1R delivery pathway, a growth factor receptor expressed in the brain and neurons.
Lee explained, "Left alone, siRNA goes to the liver. To go to muscle or neurons, a shuttle is essential," adding, "We modified the shuttle structure of IGF-1R to make siRNA delivery much better, and in animal studies, it is a new modality (drug delivery method) that achieves knockdown in neurons."
During the event, Lee also attended the presentation by Compass Therapeutics, ABL Bio's global partner.
Lee said, "In this presentation, Compass Therapeutics reinforced that its core pipeline is the VEGF/PD-1 bispecific antibody 'ABL001,' which is being developed as a second-line treatment for cholangiocarcinoma," adding, "While the clinical data are the same as before, the company stressed it will disclose topline data for overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) at the end of March this year."
Lee said, "Originally, Compass aimed to release the key data at the end of last year, but even at the 80% cutoff point, patients were surviving, so the blind remains in place." That means the clinical trial is continuing because efficacy, including survival, is strong. Lee added, "In the United States, Compass said it will commercialize on its own and appointed a chief commercial officer (CCO) last week."
Lee said, "If ABL001's clinical results show potential for success, ABL Bio can leap to the next stage."