On Wednesday, Cha Biotech announced its participation in Bio Korea 2026, where it aims to discover promising domestic and international biotech startups and support their entry into the global market.
During an open session on Tuesday, Cha Biotech’s Head of Global Business Development, Huh Young-jin, presented plans to create an innovation ecosystem for scaling up K-Bio startups. The presentation, titled, K-Bio CIC: The Heart of Global Bio Innovation Connecting the World, outlined strategies for global expansion.
Huh revealed that Cha Biotech is establishing the K-Bio CIC Open Innovation Center within the global bio cluster Cell Gene Bioplatform (CGB) in Pangyo’s Second Techno Valley. Covering 10,000 square meters (about 107,600 square feet), the center is set to begin operations by year-end.
He emphasized that K-Bio CIC aims to build an innovative ecosystem for K-Bio startups to scale globally. This will be achieved by creating an environment dedicated to research and development (R&D), expanding global networks, attracting investments, and supporting new drug development and product commercialization.
The center’s primary focus is to create an environment where startups can concentrate solely on research.
K-Bio CIC will provide biotech ventures with state-of-the-art experimental equipment, specialized facilities, and various research spaces. This setup allows companies to quickly initiate R&D based on their ideas, overcoming the hurdles individual startups often face in establishing such infrastructure.
Beyond research facilities, it will operate as the country’s only integrated open innovation hub. The center will offer shared laboratory infrastructure, global network connections, clinical accessibility, links to GMP production, and support for global business development.
The center plans to expand opportunities for international expansion and investment through strategic collaboration programs with global pharmaceutical companies and investors.
It will actively support startup growth, investment attraction, technology commercialization, and global expansion. Cha Bio Group will also provide its vertical integration infrastructure to these startups.
Companies based at K-Bio CIC will have access to Cha Bio Group’s extensive resources, including six global Cell and Gene Therapies (CGT) Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) sites, the CHA Animal Experimentation Center, and the CHA Global Clinical Trial Center.
A spokesperson for Cha Biotech stated that it aims to develop K-Bio CIC into Asia’s leading bio open innovation hub, establishing a global innovation ecosystem centered on cell and gene therapies.
Collaboration with Miltenyi Biotec on CAR-NK Therapy Development
In a parallel development, Cha Biotech has partnered with Miltenyi Biotec, a cell and gene therapy manufacturing specialist, to develop an allogeneic CAR-NK (Chimeric Antigen Receptor-expressing Natural Killer Cell) therapy.
Under this collaboration, Miltenyi Biotec will produce and supply lentivirus vectors to Cha Biotech.
Utilizing these vectors, Cha Biotech will develop CHACAR-NK-201, a CAR-NK-based cancer cell therapy. The company is expanding clinical research on its autologous NK cell therapy for solid tumors, including liver cancer, glioblastoma, and triple-negative breast cancer, using its proprietary NK cell culture technology.
The firm is intensifying the development of its CAR-NK pipeline as a next-generation immune cell therapy, leveraging lentivirus technology that maximizes gene transfer efficiency.
