Genome & Company (314130.KQ) is accelerating the development of a next-generation bispecific antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) with support from the national new drug development program. The company plans to secure core preclinical data and advance to global technology transfer and clinical development.
Genome & Company announced on the 14th that its bispecific ADC pipeline 'GENB-120' was finally selected for the candidate substance project under the Korea Drug Development Fund's "New Drug R&D Ecosystem Building Research."
With this selection, Genome & Company will receive R&D funding from the Korea Drug Development Fund and plans to begin full-scale preclinical development of 'GENB-120' over the next two years, including selecting the optimal antibody format and payload. Through this, the company aims to secure core data for preclinical-stage technology transfer and pursue global technology transfer and entry into clinical development.
'GENB-120' is a bispecific ADC candidate that simultaneously targets 'ITGB4,' a novel target discovered through Genome & Company's proprietary drug development platform 'GNOCLE™,' and 'TROP2,' an existing anticancer target. It is characterized by selectively delivering a cytotoxic payload only to cancer cells, taking advantage of the fact that both targets are highly expressed in various solid tumors such as pancreatic cancer, lung cancer, and bladder cancer, while their overlapping expression is low in normal tissues. The company expects this to raise the safety margin compared to existing single-target ADCs.
Genome & Company has seen its major new drug pipelines selected for national new drug development program projects one after another. Following the selection of 'GENA-104' as a non-clinical stage project in 2022, 'GENA-119' was selected at the lead substance stage in 2023, and 'GENC-116' was selected as a candidate substance stage project in 2025. With this latest 'GENB-120,' the company's major pipelines have received national support in succession.
In particular, 'GENA-104 (EP0089),' which received national new drug development program support, was selected as one of the Top 10 outstanding projects in 2024 and is currently being developed by Ellipses Pharma of the United Kingdom. The company explained that this is regarded as a representative case in which national project support led to actual technology transfer and commercialization.
Cha Mi-young, head of Genome & Company's New Drug Research Institute, stressed, "It is very significant that our bispecific ADC pipeline 'GENB-120' has been selected for a national new drug development program project, following GENA-104, GENA-119, and GENC-116." She added, "Through this project, we will prove GENB-120's differentiated competitiveness and accelerate so that it leads to tangible research results and development progress."
Meanwhile, the national new drug development program is a cross-ministerial research and development (R&D) project pursued with the goal of strengthening the global competitiveness of Korea's pharmaceutical and bio industry. It supports the entire new drug development cycle over 10 years from 2021, aiming to strengthen the domestic new drug development ecosystem, generate global commercialization achievements, and enhance public-interest value in the healthcare sector.
