Acepodia Announces First Patient Dosed in Phase 1 Trial of ACE723, a Novel Dual-Payload Antibody-Drug Conjugate

ACE723 is the first candidate from Acepodia's AD2C platform to enter human testing

ALAMEDA, Calif., and TAIPEI, Nov. 5, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Acepodia (6976: TT), a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation cell therapies and antibody-drug conjugates, today announced that the first patient has been dosed in its Phase 1 trial of ACE723 in unresectable or metastatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The patient was dosed at a clinical trial site in China.

ACE723 is a GPC3-targeted dual-payload antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) and the first candidate from Acepodia's proprietary Antibody-Dual-Drugs Conjugation (AD2C) platform to reach the clinic.

"Dosing the first patient with ACE723 is an important moment for Acepodia. It is the first time a molecule from our AD2C platform has been given to a patient," said Sonny Hsiao, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Acepodia. "We are grateful to the patients, investigators and site teams who made this possible, and we look forward to sharing updates as the study progresses."

ACE723 pairs a GPC3-targeting antibody with two cytotoxic payloads that kill tumor cells through different mechanisms. This design is intended to address tumor heterogeneity and the resistance that can limit single-payload ADCs. GPC3 is frequently expressed in HCC, making it an attractive target for delivering payloads directly to tumor cells.

The Phase 1 study will assess the safety, tolerability, dose-limiting toxicities, pharmacokinetics and preliminary anti-tumor activity of ACE723. The dose-escalation portion is designed to define a recommended dose for later-stage development and potential expansion cohorts.

ACE723 received IND clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) in September 2026, followed by IND approval from the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) in October 2026, supporting clinical development across the United States, China and Taiwan.

HCC accounts for more than 70% of liver cancer cases worldwide. While immunotherapy-based combinations have improved first-line treatment for advanced disease, many patients eventually progress or develop resistance and have few effective options afterward. New therapies with differentiated mechanisms are urgently needed.

About Acepodia

Acepodia (6976: TT) is a clinical-stage biotechnology company developing next-generation therapies for cancer and autoimmune diseases through its proprietary conjugation technology platforms. Leveraging a family of bio-orthogonal click chemistry approaches originating from Nobel Prize laureate Carolyn Bertozzi's laboratory, Acepodia has built a modular platform designed to combine antibodies with immune cells or therapeutic payloads to create differentiated treatment modalities.

The Company is advancing a pipeline based on its Antibody-Cell Conjugation (ACC) and Antibody-Dual-Drugs Conjugation (AD2C) platforms. These technologies are designed to enable flexible integration across antibodies, immune cells, and payload architectures, with the goal of enhancing targeted therapeutic activity while supporting broad applicability across hematologic malignancies, solid tumors, and autoimmune diseases. By applying its conjugation technologies across multiple therapeutic modalities, Acepodia aims to develop scalable and differentiated therapies for patients with significant unmet medical needs.

SOURCE Acepodia, Inc.