Pinetree Therapeutics Raises 67.4 Billion KRW in Series B Funding

Protein Degradation Platform 'AbReptor'
Cumulative Funding Reaches Approximately 130 Billion KRW
Accelerating Development of Oncology Therapeutics

Pinetree Therapeutics, based in Cambridge, United States, announced on October 29 that it has recently completed a Series B funding round, raising $47 million (approximately 67.4 billion KRW). Including last year’s Series A Extension, the company’s cumulative funding now amounts to $90.5 million (about 129.8 billion KRW).

This investment round closed after exceeding its initial target. Existing investors, including DSC Investment, Withwin Investment, Stick Ventures, Samho Green Investment, Atinum Investment, S&S Investment, SJ Investment Partners, Smilegate Investment, and Gauss Capital Management, participated in follow-on investments. New investors Korea Investment Partners and SV Investment also joined this round.

Pinetree Therapeutics, founded in 2019, is a company developing antibody-based protein degradation therapeutics. The company is working on next-generation targeted protein degradation (TPD) technology aimed at cell membrane receptors and extracellular proteins. Its core platform, AbReptor, utilizes dual and multi-specific antibody structures to selectively eliminate disease-causing proteins. The platform has demonstrated strong efficacy even in tumors resistant to existing tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) or immune checkpoint inhibitor therapies.

In particular, the AbReptor platform is being expanded into a new class of degradable antibody-drug conjugates that can overcome the limitations of conventional antibody-drug conjugates. Its applications are also broadening to include inflammatory diseases and immunology.

In July last year, Pinetree Therapeutics signed a global exclusive license option agreement with AstraZeneca for an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR)-targeted degradative antibody candidate. The contract, including milestones and royalties, was valued at a total of $500 million. Through this, the company has been recognized by global pharmaceutical firms for the scalability and applicability of its innovative protein degradation platform, and is expanding its global collaboration network.

The funds raised in this round will be used to prepare and submit an Investigational New Drug (IND) application and conduct Phase 1 clinical trials for its leading oncology pipeline, expand its portfolio of first-in-class multi-specific degraders, and pursue strategic joint research with global pharmaceutical companies.

Song Hojun, CEO of Pinetree Therapeutics, said, "The AbReptor platform has consistently demonstrated outstanding efficacy and low side effects in preclinical studies across various receptor tyrosine kinase (RTK) targets. It also presents the potential to overcome incurable or refractory cancers that do not respond to existing treatments. With this investment, we plan to accelerate entry into Phase 1 clinical trials and speed up the development of innovative protein degradation therapeutics."

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