[Edaily Reporter KIM SUNG-JIN ] Philadelphia, USA, 2012. At the time, Tom and CARRY Whitehead visited the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) with their six-year-old daughter, Emily, who was suffering from acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). After receiving a terminal diagnosis, they sought out Dr. Stephan Gruf, a pioneer in cellular immunotherapy, in the hope of grasping at any last-ditch chance.

Dr. Stephen Grupp, who was preparing a clinical trial of CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T-cell) therapy for pediatric leukemia patients at the time, enrolled Emily—who had little time left—as his first patient and administered the CAR-T treatment. Emily, who had been facing imminent death, went on to lead a healthy life for over 10 years without any cancer recurrence. It was the moment CAR-T emerged as a miracle cancer treatment.

However, around the same time, a fatal flaw in CAR-T therapy came to light. During some clinical trials involving patients with solid tumors, a series of patient deaths began to occur. CAR-T is a cancer treatment that extracts a patient’s immune cells, modifies them to effectively attack cancer cells, and then reintroduces them into the patient’s body; these incidents occurred because the modified cells also attacked healthy cells.

“We Will Overcome Recurrence and Toxicity”…Why We’re Betting on a Two-Pronged Approach

“CAR-T was a miracle cancer treatment. It’s a treatment that completely cured blood cancers. However, with long-term administration, nearly 40% of patients experienced recurrence, and in cases of solid tumors, there were even instances of immediate death. The problems were the recurrence rate and toxicity.”

Jin Yang-gon, Chairman of HLB INC., pointed out these issues while discussing the potential of CAR-T, a next-generation cancer treatment, at the “2026 HLB INC. IR Day” held recently in Yeouido, Seoul. Chairman Jin noted, “Existing CAR-T cells are supposed to remain dormant once cancer cells are killed, but they continue to fight,” adding, “The limitation of existing treatments is that by the time cancer reoccurs, the cells are exhausted and unable to fight.”

However, despite these issues, Chairman Jin assessed CAR-T cancer therapies as the candidate with the highest growth potential among the various pipeline projects currently under development by HLB INC. “Looking at our current pipeline as a whole,” Chairman Jin said, “if CAR-T shows even slightly better clinical results, its corporate value will exceed that of the new drugs we’ve already received approval for—such as those for liver cancer and bile duct cancer.”

HLB INC.(028300)The reason for the high expectations placed on CAR-T is that, if the limitations of existing treatments can be overcome, the treatment scope can be expanded to include various cancer types, including solid tumors. Unlike individual new drugs that treat specific cancer types, a major advantage of the CAR-T platform is that it allows for the development of multiple therapies by changing the targets that recognize cancer cells.

HLB INC. is currently developing its “KIR-CAR” CAR-T platform through Verismo Therapeutics, a U.S. subsidiary of its affiliate HLB innoVation(024850). Verismo was founded based on technology from University of Pennsylvania researchers who participated in the development of “Kymriah,” the world’s first CAR-T therapy. HLB INC. began acquiring shares in Verismo in 2021 and made it a wholly-owned subsidiary of HLB innoVation in 2024. Subsequently, in 2025, HLB invested over 30 billion won to support Verismo’s clinical development and operations, and in April of this year, it decided on an additional investment totaling 41.4 billion won.

The key feature that distinguishes KIR-CAR from existing CAR-T therapies is its multi-chain structure. In conventional CAR-T therapies, the receptor that recognizes cancer cells and the signaling function that activates T cells are combined into a single chain. In contrast, KIR-CAR separates the component that recognizes cancer cells from the one that transmits the activation signal. This approach creates a structure where the two chains connect only when they encounter cancer cells to launch an attack, and cease the attack when no cancer cells are present. This strategy aims to overcome the issues with existing CAR-T therapies, namely T-cell exhaustion and indiscriminate attacks on normal cells.

Chairman Jin explained, “The Verismo research team was aware of the challenges and limitations of existing CAR-T therapies, and the dual-chain structure was the solution they devised to overcome them,” adding, “It fights only when it needs to and rests when it doesn’t. This means it can fight again even if the cancer recurs, while reducing toxicity.”

Targeting Solid and Hematologic Cancers Simultaneously… Many Challenges Remain Before Commercialization

Verismo’s core pipeline consists of “SynKIR-110,” a treatment for

solid tumors

, and “SynKIR-310,” a treatment for hematologic cancers. Both therapies are candidate compounds utilizing the KIR-CAR platform.

SynKIR-110 targets mesothelin (MSLN), which is expressed on the surface of cancer cells. A Phase 1 clinical trial is currently underway in the U.S. for patients with ovarian cancer, malignant mesothelioma, and cholangiocarcinoma. Mesothelin is a protein expressed in various solid tumors, and the CAR-T cells are designed to recognize it and attack the cancer cells.

According to data presented by Verismo at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) conference last April, tumor shrinkage was observed in 4 out of 9 patients treated with SynKIR-110. The maximum reduction was 47%, and one of these patients maintained a partial response through the 6-month follow-up period.

SynKIR-310, a blood cancer treatment targeting CD19, is currently undergoing a Phase 1 clinical trial for patients who have relapsed after prior CAR-T therapy or who did not respond to treatment.

Of course, HLB INC.’s double-chain approach is not entirely new. Research aimed at separating antigen recognition from activation signals by utilizing two receptors has been underway since the early 2010s. However, it has not yet been proven that the double-chain CAR-T structure is more effective than existing therapies.

Industry observers point out that there are still significant challenges to overcome. With solid tumors, the expression of target antigens varies from one cancer cell to another, and immune cells face difficulties penetrating deep into the tumor.

An industry official stated, “The level of target antigen expression varies from one cancer cell to another, and there is also a risk of attacking targets present in normal tissue,” adding, “The key to commercialization will be whether we can control side effects while ensuring therapeutic efficacy.”