HLB Innovation said on the 3rd that Jin Yang-gon, chair of the HLB Group board, acquired 160,000 shares of HLB Innovation through on-market purchases. With this, the number of HLB Innovation shares held by Jin rose to 702,407.
This purchase is Jin's first on-market purchase of a group affiliate's shares this year. Earlier, starting with his first on-market purchase in Jan. last year, Jin bought a total of 542,407 shares of HLB Innovation over 12 rounds through the end of last year.
The company said Jin's expansion of equity reflects confidence in HLB Innovation's mid- to long-term growth potential and enhancement of corporate value.
The company's U.S. subsidiary, Verismo Therapeutics, is developing a CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T cell) therapy candidate.
CAR-T Therapy extracts immune cells called T cells and uses gene-editing technology to target specific cells. Receptors that recognize cancer cells are introduced into T cells from a patient's blood, which are then massively expanded and reinfused into the patient. This allows attacking only cancer cells without affecting normal cells.
According to the company, it is a second-generation CAR-T Therapy that improves on the "T-cell exhaustion" issue, which has been cited as a limitation of existing approved CAR-T therapies. In the first half of this year, it plans to disclose interim results from a phase 1 trial of "SynKIR-110" targeting solid tumors, and it is also aiming to present interim results for the hematologic cancer CAR-T Therapy "SynKIR-310" at a global conference this year.
An HLB Innovation official said, "This year, as Verismo Therapeutics' clinical results are disclosed step by step, it will be the year when HLB Innovation's corporate value is fully reassessed," adding, "We will continue to support our subsidiary's research and development and steadily execute our mid- to long-term growth strategy."