TriOar Biotechnology has signed a platform technology transfer and joint development option agreement with Celltrion for its TROCAD (TriOar’s Conditionally Activatable Domain) platform technology.

The total contract value is $356 million (about 522 billion won) if all six target licenses are exercised, including up to $231 million in development milestones and up to $125 million in sales milestones. There is no upfront payment included in the deal.

Following contract execution, a proof-of-concept (POC) will be conducted for the first target. Upon successful completion, a platform technology license fee of 1 billion won will be paid. Additional milestone payments and royalties based on sales will follow at subsequent stages.

TROCAD is a platform technology applicable to antibody-based therapeutics, including antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). It features a dual-function structure that delivers drugs more precisely to cancer tissues while blocking unnecessary binding to healthy cells. This is expected to dramatically improve the therapeutic index by enhancing tumor targeting while reducing toxicity.

Celltrion plans to utilize this technology to develop and commercialize next-generation ADCs targeting six targets. For two of these targets, Celltrion has the option to exercise joint development rights. If exercised, both companies will share ADC application technology and know-how.

TriOar is a biotech company founded in 2021 by Dr. Woo Sung-ho, a founding member of Ligachem Biosciences and Intocell, specializing in novel drug-development platform technologies. The company possesses TROCAD, applicable to antibody-based therapeutics including ADCs, and TROSIG, a next-generation ADC linker system.

It is accelerating technology development by utilizing research infrastructure and commercialization support as a tenant at Seoul Biohub, a biomedical startup support platform operated by the Seoul Metropolitan Government.