Handok has recently acquired USD 5 million-worth of shares in TRIGR Therapeutics, an American biotech startup. Conducted as part of Handok’s Open Innovation Program, the investment is intended to enable Handok to access TRIGR’s bispecific antibody development projects.

TRIGR Therapeutics, founded in April 2018, is a no research, development only (NRDO) biotech company that specializes in the clinical testing and development of prospective pharmaceutical substances. The company is currently working on four bispecific antibody projects in partnership with ABL Bio, another Korean biotech business. George Uy, the founder of TRIGR, has led the successful marketization of multiple new drugs at such established pharmaceutical companies as Roche, Spetrum Pharmaceuticals, Sorrento Therapeutics, and Abraxis Oncology.

Bispecific antibodies are an emerging technology in new drug R&D today. Antibodies generally recognize and fight only a single given type of antigen, while bispecific antibodies, on the other hand, can respond to two different types of antigen, allowing researchers to develop more efficacious and less toxic medications. Cancer medications based on bispecific antibodies, for example, can boost immune cells and attack cancer cells simultaneously. TRIGR owns global rights to a number of new drug projects, including ABL0001/TR009, an anti-cancer antibody that inhibits angiogenesis; bispecific antibodies that intervene in T-cells; and another bispecific antibody-based anticancer drug. ABL001/TR009 is currently undergoing a Phase-1a clinical trial in Korea.