ABL Bio has created a U.S. subsidiary, Neok Bio, and financed it with a $75 million Series A to take two experimental cancer drugs into first-in-human studies in 2026. 

The spinout went live with a new website as Korean biotech ABL Bio, known for antibody engineering, for the first time named the drug targets behind the programs. Both are bispecific antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs).

ABL Bio said ABL206 has been renamed NEOK001 and is designed to bind ROR1 and B7-H3, two proteins frequently found on solid tumors. ABL209 is now NEOK002 and targets EGFR and MUC1.

Under the split of work, ABL Bio said Wednesday that it will complete the remaining preclinical studies and file U.S. FDA applications to begin human testing near the end of 2025 and in early 2026. 

Neok Bio will run the clinical trials from phase 1 onward. The companies expect first-in-human studies to start in mid-2026 with initial readouts in 2027.

Neok Bio said its ADCs use a proprietary linker-payload, SYNtecan E, intended to keep the toxic payload stable in the bloodstream and release it once the antibody enters the tumor cell. The approach is meant to improve both effectiveness and safety compared with older, single-target ADCs.

“Plans for the U.S. subsidiary and rapid advancement of our bispecific ADC pipeline have proceeded smoothly,” ABL Bio CEO Lee Sang-hoon said, adding that the target reveal was timed to the company’s presentation at World ADC San Diego, held Monday to Thursday.

Neok Bio CEO Mayank Gandhi said the financing moves the company toward the clinic and that the dual-targeting design is intended to address tumor heterogeneity, drug resistance and off-tumor side effects across solid tumors, including thoracic, gastrointestinal and gynecologic cancers.