[Edaily Reporter SONG YOUNG-DOO ] While #G2GBIO, Inc. and #ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc. posted notable gains, ABL Bio Inc.(298380)plummeted. G2GBIO, Inc. rose more than 10% on expectations that the global obesity treatment market will begin to weed out inferior technologies among long-acting injectable drugs. ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc. shot straight to the daily price limit following news of the expansion of clinical trials for its next-generation CD47 antibody drug in pancreatic cancer. In contrast, investor sentiment froze at ABL Bio after financial authorities conducted a raid amid allegations that executives and employees had used undisclosed information.

Long-acting drug stocks surge following Novo-Ascendis split; G2GBIO, Inc. gains momentum... Why

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According to KG Zeroin MP Doctor (MP Doctor, formerly Marketpoint) on the 15th, G2GBIO, Inc. closed at 34,500 won, up 9.18% (2,900 won) from the previous trading day. In addition, Peptron, Inc. (up 8.41%, to 150,800 won) and Inventage Lab Inc. (up 1.20%, to 25,250 won) also posted gains.

The reason behind the across-the-board strength in long-acting technology companies is the termination of the collaboration between Novo Nordisk and Ascendis Pharma. On the 14th (local time), Ascendis announced that it was ending its collaboration with Novo Nordisk in the field of metabolic and cardiovascular diseases. Consequently, the rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize candidate compounds utilizing TransCon technology—including the once-monthly semaglutide—will be returned to Ascendis.

Neither Novo Nordisk nor Ascendis disclosed specific reasons for the termination of the agreement. Ascendis mentioned plans to continue developing the returned once-monthly semaglutide as a treatment for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Nevertheless, it is widely believed that the very fact that Novo Nordisk—a leader in the global obesity treatment market—has parted ways with its long-acting platform has had a significant impact on the market. This is because, following the market dominance of the once-weekly drugs Wegovy and Mounjaro, the focus of next-generation competition has shifted to formulations administered at least once a month, triggering a process of sorting the wheat from the chaff to determine which drug delivery technologies will ultimately survive to reach commercialization.

In South Korea, G2GBIO, Inc. reacted most strongly to this development. G2GBIO, Inc. owns the InnoLAMP platform, which encapsulates drugs within biodegradable polymer microparticles for slow release. Its flagship pipeline is “GB-7001,” a once-monthly semaglutide candidate.

The key to the competitiveness of long-acting injectables lies in maintaining a consistent blood concentration of the drug throughout the treatment period, rather than having it released all at once immediately after administration. This is particularly crucial for GLP-1 agonists, where gastrointestinal adverse reactions such as nausea and vomiting are major side effects; suppressing a rapid rise in blood drug concentration is a critical development challenge.

This is precisely the area where G2GBIO, Inc. positions its competitive advantage. According to data released by the company, a clinical pharmacokinetic (PK) simulation based on GB-7001’s preclinical data showed a peak-to-trough ratio of 1.3. This is lower than the 1.8-fold ratio for Wegovy and Ozempic, and the 2.0-fold ratio for Ascendis’s semaglutide, which the company cited as comparators. A lower ratio indicates that fluctuations in blood drug concentrations are smaller over the course of treatment.

A representative from G2GBIO, Inc. stated, “It appears that the competitiveness of the microparticle formulation among long-acting injectables is being recognized in the market,” adding, “For long-acting peptide formulations, it is crucial to both contain a sufficient amount of the drug and ensure its stable release.”

ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc. Expands into Pancreatic Cancer, Hits Daily Price Limit

ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc. hit the daily price limit, closing at 3,515 won—up 29.94% (810 won) from the previous trading day. The stock price appears to have been driven up by news that the company is expanding the development scope of its next-generation CD47 antibody drug candidate, “IMC-002,” to include pancreatic cancer, a notoriously difficult-to-treat form of cancer.

ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc. announced today that it had received approval from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) for a protocol amendment to the Phase 1b clinical trial of IMC-002. The amendment involves adding a cohort of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) to the “ENBRIGHT” clinical trial, which evaluates the safety and efficacy of IMC-002 in patients with advanced cancer who have failed standard treatment.

Consequently, the development indications for IMC-002 have been expanded from the existing indications of liver cancer, breast cancer, and bile duct cancer to include pancreatic cancer. In this pancreatic cancer cohort, the combination therapy of IMC-002 and the multi-target tyrosine kinase inhibitor lenvatinib will be evaluated.

CD47 is a so-called “Don’t eat me” signal that cancer cells send to evade attack by macrophages. IMC-002 blocks this signal, inducing macrophages to phagocytose cancer cells. The strategy is to further enhance this phagocytosis of cancer cells by combining IMC-002 with lenvatinib.

According to the company, in vitro studies using the pancreatic cancer cell line BxPC3 showed that phagocytosis of cancer cells by macrophages increased when IMC-002 was administered in combination with lenvatinib, compared to monotherapy. However, since these results have only been confirmed at the cellular level, clinical trials are needed to verify whether the same synergistic effect occurs in actual pancreatic cancer patients. ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc. plans to begin enrolling patients in the pancreatic cancer cohort this October, starting at Samsung Seoul Hospital.

Kim Heung-tae, CEO of ImmuneOncia Therapeutics, Inc., said, “Based on IMC-002’s excellent safety profile and its synergy with lenvatinib, we will successfully conduct this clinical trial to offer new hope for pancreatic cancer patients and, at the same time, use it as a key stepping stone for global technology exports.”

Did Investors Buy Ahead of the Technology Export News? ABL Bio Inc. Plummets 8% Following Raid

ABL Bio closed at 59,300 won, down 8.63% (5,600 won) from the previous trading day. The news that financial authorities had launched a compulsory investigation into allegations that executives and employees used insider information dealt a direct blow to the stock.

The Joint Task Force to Eradicate Stock Price Manipulation—composed of the Financial Services Commission, the Financial Supervisory Service, and the Korea Exchange—conducted search and seizure operations that day at ABL Bio Inc.’s headquarters in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, as well as at the residences of relevant employees. The task force suspects that approximately 10 individuals, including employees, purchased shares of ABL Bio Inc. before the public disclosure of a technology transfer agreement with a global pharmaceutical company and then sold them after the announcement, reaping approximately 1 billion won in illicit gains.

The details of the technology transfer agreement under investigation have not been disclosed. Last April, ABL Bio Inc. signed a technology transfer agreement with GSK Holdings for its GrabBody-B technology, valued at up to 4.1104 trillion won. In November of the same year, it announced a technology transfer and joint research agreement with Eli Lilly valued at up to $2.562 billion. In both cases, the stock price surged immediately after the announcements.

The crux of this matter lies not in the search and seizure itself, but in the scope of the investigation. If it is concluded that some employees used information obtained in the course of their duties for personal gain, the impact on the business may be limited. However, the situation changes if key executives responsible for technology transfer, legal affairs, investor relations, or regulatory disclosures are implicated, or if it is confirmed that the use of undisclosed information was repeated across multiple technology transfer processes. This is because the issue could extend beyond individual misconduct to raise concerns about the company’s internal controls. However, the search and seizure alone does not confirm any charges against ABL Bio or its executives and employees.

An ABL Bio Inc. official stated, “We are currently verifying the specific facts of the matter, and no plans have yet been made regarding a statement from the company.”