Pinobio Joins KDDF ADC Consortium Development Project

One Company Selected Each for Drug, Linker, and Antibody
ADC Candidate Derived Through Consortium
Establishing US Corporation in 2024... Aiming for Nasdaq Listing

Antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialized biotech company Pinobio announced on the 25th that it has been selected for the ADC development project by the Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF).

Pinobio CI
Photo by Pinobio

This project is part of the 1st National New Drug Development Project, titled ‘Development of Global Blockbuster ADC Anticancer Drug Components.’ A total of three companies were selected: one each for the development of cytotoxic drugs (payloads), linkers, and antibodies. Pinobio was named as the lead company for payload development. As the name suggests, ADCs are pharmaceuticals that conjugate antibodies and drugs, structured by connecting an antibody that binds to cancer antigens with a payload that can kill cancer cells via a linker. Like a missile equipped with radar (antigen) and carrying a bomb (payload) via a linker, ADCs can effectively attack cancer cells, drawing attention as next-generation anticancer technology.

This project was newly established this year as part of the ‘ADCaptain Project’ promoted by the Korea Drug Development Fund, aiming to discover ADC drug candidates with global competitiveness. The fund plans to collaborate with leading institutions specialized in the core components of ADCs?drugs, linkers, and antibodies?to derive new ADC candidates, license-in the technology, and establish an ADC company in the form of a consortium. In the ADCaptain Project roadmap announced in April, the fund stated its intention to establish a U.S. corporation in 2024 and pursue a Nasdaq listing.

Pinobio possesses ADC platform technology based on a new camptothecin-class drug and an optimized linker. Pinobio’s ADC drug demonstrated comparable or superior efficacy, favorable pharmacokinetic (PK) profiles, and optimal bystander effects, showing similar physicochemical characteristics in comparative experiments with deruxtecan, the drug used in the blockbuster new drug trastuzumab deruxtecan.

Based on this, Pinobio signed a technology transfer agreement with Celltrion last year worth up to $1.2428 billion (approximately 1.661 trillion KRW) in milestones. In April, it also achieved results by attracting equity investment from Lotte Biologics and establishing an ADC contract development (CDO) partnership. Pinobio has attracted a total investment of 64 billion KRW so far, based on its research and development (R&D) competitiveness and technology commercialization achievements.

Jung Doo-young, CEO of Pinobio, said, “Collaboration across the value chain of each ADC component is crucial,” adding, “We will do our best in research and development to successfully derive ADC candidates based on camptothecin payloads.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.