South Korea’s pharmaceutical and biotech companies are moving aggressively into clinical development of antibody-drug conjugates, or ADCs, as global drugmakers pour massive investment into the fast-heating field. Several Korean firms have now advanced candidates to the patient-dosing stage, intensifying competition to develop next-generation cancer therapies.
Industry officials said ADCs combine an antibody’s ability to target tumors with the cancer-killing effect of a cytotoxic drug. By linking the drug to an antibody, the therapy is designed to deliver treatment selectively to cancer cells, potentially reducing toxicity compared with conventional chemotherapy while improving effectiveness.
Celltrion is accelerating development with multiple programs. After securing Finobio’s platform technology, PINOT-ADC, in 2022, it advanced three ADC cancer candidates to patient dosing.
The three pipelines — CT-P70, CT-P71 and CT-P73 — received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for Phase 1 investigational new drug applications last year. CT-P73 began dosing patients in the first quarter of this year, while CT-P70 and CT-P71 started dosing in the second half of last year. CT-P70 and CT-P71 also received FDA fast-track designation, the company said.
Samsung Bioepis, long focused on biosimilars, has entered new-drug development and moved into ADCs. After signing a joint research and technology licensing deal with Intocell in December 2023, it launched a global Phase 1 trial of its first new-drug pipeline, SBE303.
Preclinical results disclosed at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting, AACR 2026, showed SBE303 improved tumor-cell binding specificity and intracellular drug-delivery efficiency compared with existing nectin-4 targeted therapies, the company said. It also reported no observed safety signals such as interstitial lung disease, or ILD.
Chong Kun Dang, known for a strong oncology portfolio, is also expanding into biologic drugs through ADC development. After licensing platform technology from Dutch company Synaffix in 2023, it has been developing CKD-703, a c-Met-targeting ADC.
In a global Phase 1/2a trial, the company has begun enrolling its first patient in the United States. The study targets patients with solid tumors including non-small cell lung cancer, or NSCLC, and is being conducted at about 12 sites in South Korea and the United States. The company said it has also received clinical approval in South Korea and expects patient enrollment there in the first half of the year, with plans to expand to Europe and other countries.
According to market research firm Mordor Intelligence, the ADC market is projected to grow from about $20 billion this year to $70 billion by 2031. Expectations are rising that if ADCs expand into first-line treatment for major cancers, the number of patients and duration of dosing could increase sharply. To date, 15 ADC therapies have received FDA approval.
One industry official said ADCs are being valued highly because of their potential expansion into first-line treatment. “ADCs are emerging as a mainstream approach in the oncology market, so the market is likely to grow even larger,” the official said.
* This article has been translated by AI.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.