HLB Innovation said on the 10th it will make an additional investment worth 41.4 billion won in its U.S. subsidiary Verismo Therapeutics.
The company said it held a board meeting this morning and resolved to participate in Verismo's third-party allotment capital increase by investing $28 million (Hanwha 41.4 billion won). The investment will be used as research and development and clinical development expense.
With this investment, HLB Innovation will acquire an additional 5,283,018 new shares of Verismo, expanding its equity stake from 98.75% to 98.93%. Verismo plans to accelerate clinical development of its chimeric antigen receptor T cell (CAR-T, kati) therapies with support from its parent company.
Verismo is conducting a phase 1 trial in the United States for solid and blood cancers based on its own kati platform, "KIR-CAR." In particular, interim phase 1 results for the solid-tumor kati candidate "SynKIR-110" are scheduled to be unveiled at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR 2026) on the 17th (local time).
This investment is seen as a strategic move to both accelerate ongoing development based on the clinical potential of the KIR-CAR platform and, by expanding equity, strengthen negotiating power for future global technology out-licensing.
Meanwhile, HLB has also continued to support new drug development for liver cancer and cholangiocarcinoma at its U.S. subsidiary Elevar Therapeutics. Elevar's two pipelines are currently under full review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with a decision on approval for the liver cancer therapy expected in Jul. and for the cholangiocarcinoma therapy in Sep.
An HLB Innovation official said, "This investment is to stably support Verismo's kati pipeline development and strengthen the foundation for mid- to long-term growth," adding, "We will prove our global competitiveness through clinical results."