HLB Innovation Completes Full Acquisition of Verismo as 100% Subsidiary

HLB Innovation announced on the 20th that it has completed the process of fully acquiring Verismo Therapeutics, a next-generation CAR-T developer based in the United States. HLB Innovation has secured 100% ownership of Verismo.

Verismo, located in Philadelphia, USA, is a biotech company founded by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania who developed the first CAR-T therapy, Kymriah. It is currently conducting Phase 1 clinical trials in the US for solid tumors such as ovarian cancer, cholangiocarcinoma, and mesothelioma (STAR-101), as well as a Phase 1 clinical trial for relapsed non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) blood cancer (CELESTIAL-301) simultaneously.

HLB Innovation judged that Verismo is the leading company in the solid tumor field, where no CAR-T therapies currently exist, based on its next-generation CAR-T therapy platform technology, KIR-CAR.

HLB Innovation plans to actively support Verismo’s clinical trials to maximize its corporate value. Recently, to this end, Dr. Brian Kim, co-founder and CEO of Verismo, was appointed as a co-CEO of HLB Innovation.

Brian Kim, Co-CEO of HLB Innovation, said, "Through the merger, we have laid the groundwork to accelerate the development of Verismo’s clinical pipeline," adding, "We will do our best to create synergy by leveraging the strong bio-ecosystem of the HLB Group."

Hongchul Kim, Co-CEO of HLB Innovation, introduced Verismo as "a company led by the world’s top researchers in the CAR-T field, including Professor Carl June from the University of Pennsylvania, who is continuously mentioned as a strong Nobel Prize candidate, and Mike Milone, co-founder of Verismo who co-developed Kymriah," and described it as "a biotech company with a high likelihood of successful new drug development." He emphasized, "We expect the corporate value to improve significantly once the interim results of the Phase 1 solid tumor trial are confirmed next year."