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| ABL Bio CEO Lee Sang-hoon / Courtesy of ABL Bio |
This is the fourth in a series of articles to highlight the growing importance of the biotech industry after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and shed light on the nation's biotech companies. ― ED.
By Baek Byung-yeul
Korea's biotech industry has been focusing on medical equipment, drug manufacturing and diagnostic kit businesses, but has achieved relatively few results in new drug development, which can create high added value.
Many domestic biotech firms are trying to stay ahead in the race against global biopharmaceutical firms through drug development projects and ABL Bio is leading the country's new drug development scene by specializing in bispecific antibody technology.
Established in February, 2016, ABL Bio is a biotech firm that develops bispecific antibody platform-based therapeutics for immuno-oncology and neurodegenerative diseases. In recognition of its distinguished bispecific antibody technology, the company was listed on the tech-savvy KOSDAQ market in December, 2018, less than three years after its foundation.
A bispecific antibody is an engineered protein composed of antigen-binding fragments from two different monoclonal antibodies. The bispecific antibody is an antibody protein that allows one antibody to bind to two different antigens. Unlike a single antibody that that recognizes one factor that causes disease, a bispecific antibody has better efficacy because it acts on two or more factors.
"It is known that the bispecific antibody is more effective and has fewer side effects than a conventional single antibody that binds to only one antigen," a company official said.
As the company's first project, ABL Bio conducted a Phase 1 clinical trial of ABL001, a bispecific antibody candidate targeting two important factors such as vascular endothelial growth and delta-like ligand 4, and recently announced positive results.
ABL Bio says global bio companies are knocking on its doors to secure licenses for ABL001. Boston-based bio company, Compass Therapeutics, announced in 2021 that it will acquire TRIGR Therapeutics, which licensed ABL001's global rights, and plans to start clinical trials in the United States soon. Elpiscience, which holds ABL001's license in China, is also scheduled to launch clinical trials there early next year.
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| ABL Bio CEO Lee Sang-hoon poses with researchers in this photo provided by the company, Wednesday. Courtesy of ABL Bio |
The success of ABL Bio was possible due to the efforts of its founder and CEO Lee Sang-hoon. Lee founded the company when he was in charge of Hanwha Chemical's biotech business. As a co-founder of local biotech firm PharmAbcine, Lee led the development of antibody treatments and also worked as a researcher for multinational biopharmaceutical companies such as Genentech, Chiron and Exelis after obtaining his Ph.D.
In addition to ABL001, ABL Bio has been conducting research and development on various pipelines such as Grabod-T platform and Grabody-I and Grabody-B for Parkinson's disease.
"Anti-cancer drugs have developed into chemical anticancer drugs, which can be categorized as first generation, while targeted anticancer drugs are second generation and immuno-oncology drugs are third generation. Immuno-oncology drugs have fewer side effects and higher efficacy, but the patient's response rate is low, and the Grabody-T platform can be an alternative to this," a company official said.
The Grabody-T selectively activates immune cells in tumor microenvironments by double-targeting antigens and immune cells that are frequently expressed in tumors. This can reduce hepatotoxic side effects and increase safety, the company said.
ABL Bio proved the superiority of its bispecific antibody technology and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) approved investigational new drug (IND) applications for bispecific antibody immune-oncology anticancer drug candidates ABL503 and ABL111 early this year. Both candidates are based on the Grabody-T platform and ABL Bio is jointly developing them with a NASDAQ-listed biotech firm I-Mab Biopharma.
The Grabody-I is a bispecific antibody platform that blocks two immune checkpoint proteins ― PD-L1 and LAG-3. Last month, the company said it has been approved by the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety for Phase 1 clinical trial IND of the anticancer drug candidates ABL501, which is based on the Grabody-I platform.
Unveiling the future roadmap of the company, ABL Bio said it will actively seek partnerships and technology transfers with global biopharmaceutical companies.
"Now, we will make active efforts in global partnerships to become a global bio company beyond Korea," the official said.
"For our Grabody-B platform, we have been discussing joint development and technology transfers with a number of global pharmaceutical companies since last year. The platform has received steady attention from global bio companies for its overwhelming blood-brain barrier transmission rate compared to other companies' platform technologies and it has been presented on at major conferences such as J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference and Blood-Brain Barrier Summit," the official added.
