Korea Drug Development Fund (KDDF) announced on November 2nd that AbClon has signed an agreement with Shanghai Hanlius Biotech (“Henlius”) on October 27th to transfer its KDDF-funded technology AC101, a novel HER2 targeting antibody. KDDF is a government funding organization established by three health-related Korean ministries: the Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning, the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, and the Ministry of Health and Welfare.

Based on the company's NEST (Novel Epitope Screening Technology) platform technology, AbClon developed an antibody AC101 against HER2 positive gastric and breast cancers. The novel targeted antibody project was selected and financed by KFDF in its lead optimization phase over 18 months from November 2014. 

NEST platform technology, one of AbClon’s core technologies, is aiming to develop first-in-class human monoclonal antibodies that may bind to numerous sites of proteins implicated in a variety of diseases. 

The Chinese biotechnology company will secure rights to develop and commercialize the medicine in China, and has an option to acquire overseas sales rights, under the agreement, and will pay the upfront, commission and royalty to AbClon.

Hanlius, one of the leading biotechnology firms, is a joint venture established by Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical and Henlius Biopharmaceutical in 2009. The company focuses on the development, production and commercialization of monoclonal antibody drugs for a number of therapeutic areas, including oncology and auto-immune diseases. Hanlius is now conducting clinical trials for 6 antibodies and of these, HLX01 (Rituxan biosimilar) and HLX02 (Herceptin biosimilar) are now under phase III trials. 

GlobalData predicts that the world’s gastric cancer market will grow to approx. $4.39 billion in 2024 with an annual average growth rate of 14.5%. Now that conventional treatments exhibit limited efficacy on gastric cancer, the successful commercialization of AC101 is likely to give tremendous impacts to the global oncology arena.

“More recently, Institut Pasteur Korea’s novel hepatitis C virus drug candidate has been transferred to J2H Biotech, a local biotechnology company. We are also delighted to learn that another first-in-class antibody candidate will be exported to China”, said Joo Sang-aun, CEO of KDDF. 

He added that KDDF will ceaselessly endeavor to fully finance a number of innovative drug candidates through careful selection process, thus enhancing the capability of Korea’s new drug technology.

Since its establishment in 2009, KDDF has seen the number of successful technology transfers to 16 (overseas: 6, domestic: 10) to date, valued at 5 trillion won.