T-E Pharma Holding unites two companies—Immunwork and T-E Meds—under one parent organization founded by Dr. Tse-Wen Chang, a biotech pioneer with decades of experience in antibody therapies and immunology. Immunwork focuses on chronic and metabolic diseases, with a strong pipeline of long-acting peptide drugs that simplify treatment schedules and improve patients’ quality of life. T-E Meds specializes in targeted cancer treatments, developing advanced antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and antibody-radionuclide conjugates (ARCs) designed to maximize efficacy while minimizing side effects.
Both companies operate independently, but share knowledge and resources within the holding. This collaborative structure accelerates progress from research to clinical trials and tackles complicated medical challenges more efficiently. It also allows each company to build on its strengths while contributing to a broader portfolio of innovative therapies.
Supported by Taiwan’s thriving biotech ecosystem—characterized by strong research infrastructure and highly skilled talent—T-E Pharma Holding is well-positioned to refine and bring therapies closer to patients. By 2025, the group aims to deliver treatments that are not only innovative but also practical and accessible. Together, Immunwork and T-E Meds are poised to make a significant impact on global healthcare, improving outcomes across a wide range of diseases.
Let’s delve into the interview details below!
Could you share your personal journey in the healthcare and biotech field, and how it led to the founding of T-E Pharma Holding and its two subsidiaries, T-E Meds and Immunwork?
I had been working in biotech since the late 1970s. I was part of the core team developing OKT3, which defines the antigen CD3, in early 1980 at Ortho Pharmaceutical, J & J, in Raritan, New Jersey. I cofounded Tanox in Houston in 1986 and invented the anti-IgE therapy in 1987, which led to the development of Xolair.
In the early part of the 2010s, several immunotherapies for cancer, including antibody-drug conjugates, CAR-T, and immune checkpoint inhibitors, which had been explored by immunologists for decades, all began to blossom. I joined the cheers to witness the historical period of FDA approval of several new drugs in these fields, but I recognized that there were still challenges ahead. Many of the new therapies that had been approved or were under development could achieve response rates of less than 50%, and some even had only 20 or 30%.
One major reason for these shortcomings was that the drugs had toxicities, and patients could not tolerate higher and more effective doses. I rationalized that if larger proportions of the drug were brought to the disease sites and smaller proportions were in other parts of the body, the drugs could achieve higher efficacy and cause less toxicity. I thus conceptualized the development of “T-E pharmaceuticals,” which contain both targeting and effector moieties. Under this conceptual direction, I invented the “multi-arm linker” technology. These new inventions propelled me to found Immunwork in 2014.
How do T-E Meds and Immunwork complement each other’s missions within the holding structure, and how does this synergy accelerate innovation?
T-E Pharma Holding owns and drives the development of innovative therapeutics based on its proprietary T-E Pharmaceuticals platform, applied through two specialized sub-platforms. Immunwork focuses on the Fatty Acid Bundle platform to create ultra-long-acting peptide drugs, with lead candidates like TE-8105 and TE-8214 currently advancing in clinical trials. Meanwhile, T-E Meds leads the Drug Bundle platform, dedicated to developing ADCs and ARCs for targeted cancer therapies.
By organizing each sub-platform under a dedicated company, T-E Pharma Holding ensures clear strategic focus for each technology line while maintaining an integrated innovation ecosystem. The synergy between Immunwork and T-E Meds enables efficient knowledge sharing, optimized resource allocation, and cohesive portfolio management, accelerating innovation and amplifying the collective impact of the holding company on global healthcare.
What are the most significant scientific or technological breakthroughs each company has achieved in recent years?
T-E Pharma has pioneered a modular drug design approach through its proprietary T-E Pharmaceuticals platform, characterized by two core innovations:
- T-E Drug Concept: The combination of Targeting (T) and Effector (E) moieties in a pharmaceutical molecule to improve efficacy and safety. Example: TE-6168 (by Immunwork), a novel fibrin-targeting thrombolytic for ischemic stroke.
- Multi-Arm Linker Technology: A patented, modular system enabling flexible, efficient assembly of complex drug molecules—forming two sub-platforms:
- Fatty Acid Bundle platform (Immunwork): Enables ultra-long-acting peptide drugs (e.g., TE-8105 and TE-8214) with extended half-life and improved solubility.
- Drug Bundle platform (T-E Meds): Enables site-specific, dual-payload ADCs with high DAR, e.g., TE-1146 for multiple myeloma.
To date, T-E Pharma holds over 90 global patents and continues advancing first- and best-in-class therapeutics.
How has Taiwan’s biotech ecosystem and regulatory landscape supported your growth and global ambitions?
Taiwan’s biotech ecosystem has provided strong support for our growth through government-led initiatives, including innovation-friendly policies that encourage cutting-edge research. The regulatory landscape in Taiwan offers a supportive and well-structured clinical trial environment, which facilitates efficient execution of trials and helps us advance our novel therapies.
Moreover, Taiwan’s rich talent pool and close collaborations between academia and industry strengthen our research and development efforts. Looking ahead, Taiwan’s strategic location and robust supply chain infrastructure will further enhance our ability to expand and operate globally. Together, these factors create an ideal environment that supports our proprietary platform technologies and drives us toward achieving our global ambitions.
What pressing medical challenges are T-E Meds and Immunwork aiming to solve, and how are your solutions different from those in the market today?
Immunwork focuses on challenging, chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, neuroendocrine tumors, and acromegaly, which require long-term treatment but lack effective therapies. Our proprietary “Fatty Acid Bundle” platform enables ultra-long-acting formulations that reduce injection frequency, improving patient adherence and quality of life. Lead candidates TE-8105 and TE-8214 are in clinical trials, showing good tolerability and promising benefits.
T-E Meds uses a proprietary enzyme-free, site-specific conjugation technology with its “Multi-Arm Linker” and “Drug Bundle” platforms to create high-DAR ADCs/ARCs with superior yield, purity, and flexible design. We can control payload type, number, and properties, even attaching two distinct payloads to one antibody in a single step. Our lead candidate, TE-1146, has demonstrated strong preclinical efficacy and is moving toward first in human trial in 2026, offering best-in-class potential for difficult-to-treat cancers.
How does T-E Pharma Holding ensure that innovation is paired with accessibility, affordability, and long-term sustainability?
We adhere to a set of very strict criteria to design and screen our product candidates, so to be highly confident that our candidates are competitive among the products being developed for the related disease indications by various companies. Our product candidates should have substantial differentiation from other products which are already approved and marketed or are under development. Among the criteria we adopt are that our product candidates have convincing pharmacology, their manufacturing is feasible, are adequately protected by our patents or patent applications. The product candidates are more efficacious, or safer, or less costly. We believe that several of our products, e.g. TE-8214 and TE-8105, fit these criteria.
Where do you envision T-E Meds, Immunwork, and T-E Pharma Holding as a whole five years from now, and what legacy do you hope to build?
We aspire to continue to grow, building values by developing product candidates that fit into our criteria, advancing these candidates through clinical development by ourselves or by collaborating with partners. In five years from now, we hope that T-E Pharma has one or more products, ascending from the portfolios of Immunwork, or T-E Meds, or both, that look very promising to be a world-class pharmaceutical product. We also hope T-E Pharma is on the way growing to be a world-class biotech company.
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