Pinotbio, which is jointly developing antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) drugs with Celltrion and Lotte Biologics, has begun developing a manufacturing process for Trop-2-targeted ADCs.

Pinotbio said Tuesday that it had been selected as the lead research and development organization for the national task of the Bio Industry Technology Development Project supported by the Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Energy. Pinotbio will receive about 5 billion won ($3.8 million) in government funding over the next five years to develop the manufacturing process for ADC’s GMP production.

Its task is to develop a customized manufacturing process for high-quality ADCs based on convergence technology among customized diagnostic treatment products through this project. Pinotbio will speed up developing the good manufacturing practice production process for Trop-2 ADCs, which it has developed independently.

Pinotbio will receive support in selecting Trop-2 ADC candidates, securing core materials (target antibodies, payloads, and linkers), manufacturing process technologies, developing ADC scale-up processes, producing standard products, and developing and optimizing ADC lyophilization formulations.

Pinotbio will partner with the Osong Foundation for the Promotion of the Advanced Medical Industry (KBIOHealth) to carry out the project.

KBIOHealth is a public agency under the Ministry of Health and Welfare with a stem cell bank, KBIO-K1. The two sides plan to collaborate on developing a GMP-grade manufacturing process for ADC production, including developing production cell lines using these cells.

“Our collaboration on national tasks related to ADCs, the next-generation field, is expected to contribute to the development of the biohealth industry ecosystem, based on our platform capabilities for developing biologic drug candidates, such as antibodies and recombinant proteins,” KBIOHealth Chairman Cha Sang-hoon said.

Pinotbio CEO Cheong Du-yeong said, “Winning a large-scale national project worth 5 billion won over five years will help us advance the research and development of our Trop2 ADC.”

Cheong added that the company would work closely with KBIOHealth to perfect its ADC platform technology and contribute to securing domestic ADC production technology.