Huons is moving to develop drug candidates across three different modalities — an mRNA eye drop, an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and a peptide cancer drug. The company is teaming up with three biotech ventures to support the candidates from preclinical development through entry into clinical trials, expanding its open innovation efforts.
Huons said on the 14th that all three consortiums it formed with SurgeneX, PinotBio and PulseInMyEars were selected for the joint drug pipeline development track of the 2026 technology development program for collaboration between pharmaceutical firms and biotech ventures.
The program is a state project led by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and administered by the Korea Technology and Information Promotion Agency for SMEs (TIPA). It supports joint development of promising drug pipelines by biotech ventures together with large and mid-sized pharmaceutical companies. Huons is participating as a joint research and development institution in three of the 10 projects selected for the joint development track this year.
Huons plans to combine its capabilities in chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC), production, preclinical and clinical development, and regulatory affairs (RA) with the biotech ventures' technologies to push the candidates into clinical trials.
With SurgeneX, Huons is developing an mRNA-lipid nanoparticle (LNP) eye drop to treat intractable diabetic keratopathy. Using SurgeneX's proprietary delivery platform RX-LNP, the goal is to deliver mRNA therapeutics — until now developed mainly as injections — in a non-invasive eye drop form. SurgeneX will handle the LNP specialized for corneal delivery and the formulation work, while Huons will verify the candidate's efficacy and safety and set the development strategy.
With PinotBio, the company is working to bring PBX-004, an ITGB6-targeting ADC candidate built on the PINOT-ADC platform, into clinical trials. Huons will take part in refining the Phase 1 protocol and the regulatory package, filing the investigational new drug (IND) application and responding to regulators.
With PulseInMyEars, Huons is jointly developing a subcutaneous formulation of Pearl-101, a peptide cancer drug aimed at homologous recombination deficiency (HRD) solid tumors that are resistant to PARP inhibitors and platinum-based chemotherapy. Huons will review CMC and regulatory compliance and support formulation optimization and IND filing preparations.
Huons plans to develop the collaboration into an open innovation-based "External R&D" model that carries biotech technologies through to the clinical stage. In April, the company took part in a partnering day hosted by the Korea Innovative Medicines Consortium (KIMCo Foundation) and TIPA to discuss cooperation with biotech firms.
"The selection of three state projects for joint drug development shows how the open innovation we have steadily pursued is producing concrete results," Huons CEO Song Soo-young said. "We will work with biotech ventures that hold innovative technologies across different modalities to speed up entry into clinical trials."
