ABL Bio (ABL Bio) and Pinobio introduced their key pipelines at Asia's representative antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) event.
ABL Bio announced on the 28th that it introduced its bispecific antibody ADC development strategy at the '3rd World ADC Asia 2024' held from the 25th to the 27th at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Jung-gu, Incheon. World ADC Asia is Asia's leading ADC-related event, providing the latest insights into industry trends. It is a gathering of top industry experts to discuss ADC development strategies and new technologies. ADC is a type of anticancer guided missile designed so that when an antibody finds cancer cells, the cytotoxic drug (payload) linked via a linker attacks only the cancer cells. It is rapidly leading recent anticancer trends.
At this event, ABL Bio presented an overview of its bispecific antibody ADC under development with the theme "Advantages of Bispecific Antibody ADC: Effects on In Vitro Activity and Toxicity," using development cases. Specific targets and indications of ABL Bio's bispecific antibody ADC pipeline are still confidential and will be disclosed later.
Bispecific antibody ADCs are expected to deliver payloads more precisely to tumors than single-antibody ADCs targeting only one antigen, resulting in higher safety and enhanced anticancer effects by blocking cancer cells' evasion mechanisms. However, most bispecific antibody ADCs are currently in early clinical development stages, with no international approvals yet. ABL Bio plans to submit Investigational New Drug (IND) applications for at least three bispecific antibody ADCs by 2025 to rapidly enter the market and secure a global leadership position.
Lee Sang-hoon, CEO of ABL Bio, said, "We will accelerate clinical entry of bispecific antibody ADCs and become a global leader driving the bispecific antibody ADC market."
Meanwhile, Pinobio also presented research results on the latest linker at World ADC Asia 2024. The linker announced this time was independently developed by Pinobio and is a 'sequential cleavage linker' designed so that the drug is released only when two types of enzymes act sequentially. Unlike conventional single-enzyme cleavage linkers, which had issues with partial drug release outside cells causing systemic toxicity, the sequential cleavage linker uses a dual safety mechanism to enhance safety and hydrophilicity.
As a result, when using the new linker, the amount of drug released outside cells was reduced by more than 10 times compared to existing linkers, and the amount absorbed by normal cells, which are not targets, was reduced by more than twice. The company explained, "The reduction in drug amount released outside cells is due to the mechanism requiring the complex presence of cleavage enzymes for separation, and the decrease in normal cell absorption is due to significantly increased hydrophilicity." In terms of efficacy, it showed equal or superior effectiveness compared to traditional single-enzyme cleavage linkers used by existing ADC developers.
Cho Hyun-yong, Executive Director of Pinobio, said, "Following the acquisition of new camptothecin-based payloads that improve drug efficacy, we have succeeded in developing a new linker that can dramatically enhance drug stability, laying the foundation to become a leading player in the ADC platform field. We will continue to play a leading role in the ADC field through ongoing research and development."
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