Ingenia Therapeutics has received preliminary approval from the Korea Exchange for its KOSDAQ listing, the company said Wednesday.
Founded in 2018 in Boston based on original Korean technology, Ingenia discovers and develops biopharmaceutical drug candidates leveraging microvascular protection and recovery technology. Founder and CEO Han Sang-yeol is an antibody researcher whose career spans the Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology, the Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Harvard Medical School and a U.S. biotech firm. The company’s core members include multinational researchers who led drug development at global big pharma companies.
The drug candidate “IGT-427” (MK-8748), which Ingenia licensed out, is being developed in global clinical trials by Merck & Co. (MSD). Ingenia signed a technology transfer and joint research agreement with EyeBio in 2022, and EyeBio was acquired as a wholly owned subsidiary of MSD in 2024.
Ingenia holds two drug development platforms, “TIE-body” and “LCIDEC,” for treating diseases related to chronic vascular inflammation and microvascular damage. These platforms are based on technology that directly activates “TIE2,” a key pathway for regulating vascular stability.
“While existing therapeutic approaches rely on regulating the balance between ligands (Ang1, Ang2), Ingenia’s technology is characterized by binding to the TIE2 receptor independently of this balance and directly activating TIE2,” an Ingenia official said. “By stabilizing vascular endothelial cells and effectively restoring the vascular barrier, it can be broadly applied to various diseases involving chronic vascular inflammation and microvascular damage.”
Ingenia has two clinical-stage pipelines. MK-8748, being developed by MSD, is a bispecific antibody candidate that combines anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) with a direct TIE2 activation mechanism. It recently entered Phase 3 trials in patients with wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) and is set to enter Phase 2 trials for diabetic macular edema (DME). By activating TIE2 to stabilize retinal blood vessels, the drug aims to deliver improved therapeutic efficacy and durability compared with existing standard treatments.
“IGT-303” is a drug candidate that applies the same vascular stabilization principle used in ophthalmic diseases to kidney disease. It works by restoring the endothelial cell layers in the glomerulus and tubules to slow disease progression. The drug aims to address unmet medical needs in chronic kidney disease (CKD) and diabetic kidney disease (DKD). Ingenia is currently conducting global Phase 1/2a trials and will begin Phase 2a trials within the first half of the year.
Ingenia is also expanding its indications to high-value therapeutic areas, including oncology, central nervous system, cardiovascular and pulmonary diseases, where vascular barrier breakdown is a key pathological mechanism. “The funds secured through this KOSDAQ listing will be concentrated on advancing our platform technology and developing follow-up pipelines,” CEO Han said. “We will create a global new drug born from original technology that started in Korea and changes the lives of patients around the world.”