Aimed Bio (0009K0) is moving into antibody-oligonucleotide conjugates (AOC), building on the technology it has developed in antibody-drug conjugates (ADC). The company plans to widen its research and development beyond cancer into the central nervous system (CNS), including brain disorders, and to accelerate clinical entry to build a pipeline of 15 clinical-stage programs by 2030.
"We will expand our R&D beyond ADC into AOC and move into the CNS field as well," CEO Huh Nam-gu (pictured) said in an interview with Seoul Economic Daily at the company's headquarters in Seoul's Songpa district on the 22nd. "We will develop and validate a blood-brain barrier (BBB) shuttle platform and then build a drug pipeline based on it." He added, "We will secure three clinical programs each year to reach a total of 15 by 2030 and achieve 10 trillion won in technology exports." Unlike ADCs, which attach a drug payload to an antibody, AOCs link ribonucleic acid (RNA) and other molecules that regulate gene expression to an antibody. Aimed Bio signed a joint AOC development agreement with drug developer Sovargen in March this year.
Behind the company's rapid expansion is the cash flowing in from a string of licensing deals. It has signed agreements worth a cumulative 3 trillion won, licensing drug candidates to Boehringer Ingelheim, Biohaven and others. In the first half of this year, the company posted revenue of 28.7 billion won and operating profit of 4.6 billion won, marking a fourth straight half-year of operating profit since the second half of 2024. As of the first half, available assets consisting of cash and cash equivalents plus short-term financial instruments totaled about 84.2 billion won. Huh said cumulative milestone payments received will surpass 100 billion won this year.
Results from clinical trials of licensed-out programs are also becoming visible. Biohaven recently confirmed objective responses, with tumors shrinking in patients across multiple cancer types, in a Phase 1 trial of AMB302, an ADC cancer drug licensed from Aimed Bio. "We have moved beyond preclinical-stage licensing to become a company that has secured proof of concept (PoC) at the clinical stage," Huh said, adding that AMB302 "will be a treatment option with improved safety and efficacy over existing therapies in metastatic urothelial cancer, where unmet need is large." He said, "The pipeline licensed to Boehringer Ingelheim is also set to begin dosing its first patient soon."
Aimed Bio plans to broaden its licensing strategy, which has centered on preclinical-stage deals, to include licensing after running its own clinical trials. Its leading candidate is AMB303, an ADC cancer drug being co-developed with SK Plasma. "You have to prepare on the assumption that you will run the trials yourself, because that is how you get a higher valuation in licensing negotiations," Huh said. "Our goal is to file an investigational new drug (IND) application for AMB303 this year and win approval."
The company is also stepping up strategic investments to secure next-generation pipelines. In the first half of this year alone, it invested in three artificial intelligence (AI) biotech firms: Galux, Innocras and Avis. The strategy is to apply AI-based antibody design, biomarker analysis and companion diagnostics across the process from candidate discovery through clinical development, raising the odds of success in drug development.
"Our drug development strategy starts from unmet medical needs in the clinic — we first decide which patients the drug will be used for, and then find candidates that fit," Huh said. "With ADCs in particular, there is a strong correlation between target expression in tissue and patient response, so if we use tissue analysis and companion diagnostics to streamline everything from patient selection to trial design, we can turn trials that would have failed into trials that succeed."
