HLB Innovation Appoints Brian Kim as Co-CEO

HLB Innovation announced on the 5th that it has completed a merger with CAR-T therapy developer 'Verismo Therapeutics' and appointed Verismo's founder and CEO, Bryan Kim, as co-CEO of HLB Innovation.

Newly appointed CEO Bryan Kim will form a 'two-top system' as co-CEO alongside the existing CEO Hongchul Kim. He will concurrently serve as CEO of both the U.S.-based Verismo and HLB Innovation, leading the global development of CAR-T therapies.

CEO Bryan Kim is a tenured clinical professor at the University of Pennsylvania (hereafter UPenn) School of Dental Medicine and was also a founding member of the Nasdaq-listed company Inovio Pharmaceuticals. In 2006, he acquired a domestic KOSPI company and led it into the KOSPI 200 within two years. Subsequently, he established a bio startup investment firm in the U.S., successfully recovering investments from three startups, earning recognition as a professional manager.

In 2020, Bryan Kim co-founded Verismo with UPenn professor Michael Milone, co-developer of the CAR-T therapy 'Kymriah,' and UPenn's cell therapy production facility (CVPF) head, Professor Donald Siegel, who was the first to manufacture Kymriah. Professor Carl June of UPenn, known as the 'father of CAR-T,' serves as a founding advisor, providing expertise in technology and clinical development.

Verismo is currently conducting Phase 1 clinical trials for two pipelines based on the next-generation CAR-T platform (KIR-CAR): solid tumors (SynKIR-110) and hematologic malignancies (SynKIR-310).

The KIR-CAR platform is highly anticipated as a solid tumor CAR-T therapy because it overcomes the 'T-cell exhaustion' phenomenon, a known limitation of existing CAR-T therapies. It is also gaining attention as a new treatment option for patients with relapsed/refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who have limited options after CAR-T cell therapy.

Bryan Kim, the new CEO of HLB Innovation, stated, "With the merger with Verismo, HLB Innovation has expanded its scope from the existing semiconductor business to the bio sector. Through ongoing clinical trials, we will demonstrate the technological value of Verismo's unique KIR-CAR platform and significantly enhance HLB Innovation's corporate value."