Hongcheon County Launches "Gangwon Advanced Bio Open Innovation" Program...Celltrion, Aptis, and Hugel Join

Advancing Gangwon's Bio Innovation Ecosystem
Collaboration among Hongcheon County, Chuncheon City, and Gangwon Province
Recruiting Participants for the Bio Open Innovation Program

On February 23, Hongcheon County announced that, together with Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province and Chuncheon City, it will fully implement the "2026 Gangwon Advanced Bio Open Innovation Program" to further advance the regional bioindustry innovation ecosystem and to discover promising bio startups.

Rendering of Hongcheon National Antibody Cluster. Provided by Hongcheon County.

This program is designed to connect outstanding startups that possess unique technologies with leading companies (anchor companies) in order to create new business models and help them grow together.

In particular, this year the scale of the project and the scope of support have been significantly expanded, as Aptis, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) specialist, and Hugel, a global medical aesthetics company, newly joined in addition to the existing participating company, the global bio company Celltrion.

Companies selected for this program will receive not only simple financial support but also a wide range of customized packages for business commercialization and technological advancement.

They will be closely nurtured through the transfer of specialized technical expertise from the anchor companies and research and development (R&D) consulting, while, according to each company’s needs, support will also be provided for proof of concept (PoC), clinical and non-clinical studies, and the use of research equipment. In addition, through a specialized accelerating program aimed at strengthening investment capabilities, the program plans to advance investor relations (IR) materials and provide support for linking companies with investors.

The 2026 program will begin with the recruitment of companies to work with Celltrion. Applications are currently being accepted from companies wishing to participate, and the deadline is February 27, 2026. This will be followed in March by sequential announcements for the recruitment of companies to collaborate with Aptis and Hugel, which will be posted on the Gangwon Technopark website.

The Open Innovation Program is regarded as a core initiative that shortens the commercialization period by linking the foundation of anchor companies with the technological innovation of venture companies.

In fact, Twinpig Biolab, which participated in last year’s program, achieved the result of signing a joint research agreement with Celltrion to discover new target peptides.

Hongcheon National Antibody Cluster Phase 1 Completion Ceremony. Provided by Hongcheon-gun

Under this collaboration, Twinpig Biolab is responsible for deriving candidate substances, while Celltrion is in charge of final candidate selection through animal testing, and the two sides are pursuing the joint development of a new peptide therapeutic.

Hongcheon County plans to continue working with Gangwon Special Self-Governing Province and Chuncheon City to expand the growth base for regional bio companies and to promote the creation of an advanced bioindustry ecosystem centered on Hongcheon.