Neok Bio has exited stealth with $75 million to take a pair of bispecific antibody-drug conjugates sourced from ABL Bio into the clinic.
ABL, a Korean biotech that is partnered with companies including Sanofi, has in recent years paired its antibody skills with linker-payload technology to build a pipeline of ADCs. The biotech licensed Synaffix technology in 2023 and raised 140 billion Korean won ($98 million) to fund ADC development in 2024. ABL used the money to take candidates toward the clinic.
California-based Neok starts life with $75 million and two candidates from ABL—which is the main investor in the startup. Neok plans to file to test the ADCs in humans early next year, start studies in the U.S. around the middle of 2026 and deliver the first human data in 2027. Thoracic, gastrointestinal and gynecological cancers are on Neok’s hit list.
Both ADCs use SYNtecan E, linker-payload technology from Synaffix. ABL paired the technology with a ROR1xB7-H3 bispecific antibody to create ABL206, now renamed NEOK001. Merck & Co. recently moved an anti-ROR1 ADC into phase 3 after seeing a 100% complete response rate in a midphase trial. But the drugmaker chose the low dose for the pivotal trial after reporting safety signals in phase 2.
The expression of ROR1 by some healthy cells makes on-target, off-tumor toxicity a concern for drugs that engage the receptor. The statement about Neok exiting stealth lacks an explanation for the decision to target ROR1 and B7-H3, a protein with very limited expression in normal cells. But, in theory, the design could improve safety, because healthy tissues are unlikely to express both ROR1 and B7-H3.
A similar rationale could underpin Neok’s other ADC, NEOK002. Previously called ABL209, the bispecific targets EGFR and MUC1 proteins. On-target, off-tumor toxicity is a concern for therapies that target either EGFR or MUC1, both of which are overexpressed in many cancers but also found at lower levels on healthy cells. A bispecific design could ensure the ADC hits cancer cells while sparing healthy tissues.
ABL has tapped Mayank Gandhi, M.D., to run Neok. Gandhi was previously chief business officer at Effector Therapeutics, a biotech that folded in 2024 in the aftermath of a midphase flop. The Neok CEO worked at Genentech earlier in his career.