Neok plays a high-risk bispecific conjugate game

Shortly after closing a $75m venture capital fund raising Neok Bio is set to become a clinical-stage biotech, on Wednesday receiving US clearance to begin a phase 1 trial of a bispecific ADC coded NEOK001. But it’s the antigens that this molecule hits – B7-H3 and ROR1 – that should give pause.

The former is the target of Daiichi Sankyo/Merck & Co’s ifinatamab deruxtecan, which has just spent time on clinical hold, while the latter has been associated with discontinuations at Oncternal Therapeutics and Lyell, and toxicity worries at Merck. Neok’s approach is not for the faint of heart.

That’s not to say that NEOK001 is destined to fail, of course, as each project has its own unique characteristics. But there’s little to suggest that NEOK001 is especially differentiated – it comprises a typical topoisomerase 1 inhibitor payload, for instance – and Neok could certainly have played it safer in choosing its first clinical asset.

South Korean offshoot

The company is formally based in California, but is essentially an offshoot of South Korea’s ABL Bio, and came out of stealth mode last November with the announced fund raising, a $75m series A.

ABL has interests in therapy areas outside oncology, while its cancer pipeline includes ragistomig, an anti-PD-L1 x 4-1BB naked MAb, as well as monospecific ADCs and givastomig, an anti-Claudin18.2 bispecific developed in collaboration with NovaBridge Biopharma. NovaBridge was until last October known as I-Mab, and its work with ABL dates back to 2018, covering several assets.

However, it's two bispecific ADCs that ABL has spun into Neok, and the private company’s declared focus is on such dual-acting conjugates. Neok’s other currently disclosed pipeline asset besides NEOK001 is NEOK002, an ADC against EGFR and Muc1 that the company expects to enter clinical trials this year, in tandem with NEOK001.

However, there is no news yet about an IND filing for NEOK002, though one is expected imminently. Attention now falls to the first clinical data from NEOK001’s phase 1 trial, something Neok hopes to be ready to unveil next year.

Selected oncology assets owned by ABL Bio

Source: OncologyPipeline.