How Alvin Luk Plans to Turn HanchorBio into a Global Immunology Contender

Few areas in biotech have inspired as much excitement – and disappointment – as CD47 immunotherapy. The biology is compelling, but many programs have stumbled because the same mechanism that helps immune cells attack tumors can also trigger serious anemia and other safety problems.

Most companies walked away.

Dr. Alvin Luk did not.

In November 2025, HanchorBio appointed Dr. Alvin Luk as Group President and Chief Medical Officer to help lead the company’s next stage of growth. With over 30 years in the biopharma industry, he brings a rare mix of scientific depth, clinical execution, regulatory judgment, and capital markets experience. Over the course of his career, he has contributed to 22 approved products and helped drive the clinical development of LUXTURNA, the first FDA-approved gene therapy. 

His work in patient-centric innovation earned him recognition as a 2025 TIME100 Health Honoree. Across his career, he has advanced more than 10 rare-disease programs. At HuidaGene Therapeutics, he most recently helped build rapid momentum in the field by securing 11 orphan drug or rare pediatric disease designations from the U.S. FDA or EMA in 15 months. 

At HanchorBio, similar momentum is now building around oncology. Dr. Luk believes the company has reached an inflection point – not only for one molecule, but for an entire platform. The company’s U.S. FDA Orphan Drug Designation for HCB101 in gastric cancer, announced in February 2026, is one visible sign that its scientific and regulatory story is beginning to translate into global momentum.

In this interview with GeneOnline, he explains why he stepped in full-time, how HanchorBio aims to revive the CD47 field, and why he believes the company could grow from a promising Asia-rooted biotech into a globally respected immunology player.

Why He Stepped in: A Turning Point in the CD47 Field

Dr. Luk has served on HanchorBio’s board since 2022, giving him a close view of both the company’s progress and the broader anti-CD47 therapeutic field. What he saw was a pattern. Many CD47 programs ran into the same trap: they could improve safety or preserve potency, but struggled to do both. That forced companies into a painful trade-off between tolerability and meaningful anti-tumor activity.

For him, HanchorBio’s platform stood out because it appeared to address that problem directly. 

The moment that convinced him to join full-time was the convergence of two data streams. First, the company’s Phase 1a dose-escalation study showed that HCB101, an engineered SIRPα-IgG4 Fc fusion protein, could be explored across a broad dose range with reassuring tolerability. Second, emerging Phase 1b/2 clinical data, especially in second-line gastric cancer, showed deep tumor reductions and encouraging objective response rates (ORRs). 

That changed the key question.

For Dr. Luk, the issue was no longer whether the biology was merely interesting. It was whether the molecule could be developed globally – and whether the platform behind it could become something much bigger.

Fixing the CD47 Problem with Engineering, Not Wishful Thinking

The CD47 pathway – often described as the immune system’s “do not eat me” signal – earned its “graveyard” reputation for a reason. Many molecules failed because they bound too strongly to red blood cells, causing anemia and collapsing the therapeutic window. Later-generation programs improved safety, but often at the cost of weakening the underlying biology.

Dr. Luk sees that not as a failure of the target itself, but as a failure of engineering.

HanchorBio’s proprietary “Fc-Based Designer Biologics (FBDB™)” platform was built around a simple principle: do not “solve” safety by diluting drug efficacy – engineer both at the same time. The platform is designed to turn complex biological components into highly specific, multi-functional biologics that overcome traditional structural trade-offs. That is the logic behind HCB101, an engineered SIRPα-Fc fusion protein designed to reduce problematic red blood cell binding and sink effects while preserving the active Fc function needed for effective macrophage engagement.

In Dr. Luk’s view, that distinction is critical. The goal is not simply to build a safer molecule. The goal is to build one that is clinically usable – a molecule with a workable balance of safety, exposure, and anti-tumor activity. So far, the patient data have been encouraging enough to suggest that HanchorBio may be on a different trajectory from earlier CD47 programs.

More importantly, he sees HCB101 not only as a lead asset but as proof that the underlying engineering logic itself may be repeatable.

“Speed Through Precision” and Reverse Engineering

If there is one phrase that sums up Dr. Luk’s operating philosophy, it is this:

Speed through precision.

After helping bring 22 products to global approval, he has little patience for the idea that biotech moves faster simply by pushing harder. In his view, true acceleration comes from making smarter decisions earlier – before time and capital are lost to ambiguity, redesign, or avoidable regulatory friction.  

At HanchorBio, that philosophy begins with disciplined clinical focus. The company does not want to chase every signal or force every program forward. Instead, the team prioritizes indications with what Dr. Luk describes as a “Goldilocks” therapeutic window – one wide enough to support meaningful efficacy while preserving tolerability and regulatory credibility.

It also means building global-grade operational readiness from the start. Data integrity, cross-regional consistency, and inspection readiness across Taipei, Shanghai, and the U.S. are not treated as future milestones. They are the baseline. And it means every study must answer a consequential question: What decision will this trial enable?

If a study cannot credibly inform a registrational pathway, clarify standard-of-care positioning, or meaningfully de-risk the asset for global partners, then in Dr. Luk’s view, it should be redesigned – or not run at all. That is how companies avoid what he calls “zombie projects”: programs that survive internally but have no realistic path to approval or adoption.

Reverse Engineering the Label

This discipline is centered on a framework Dr. Luk refers to as “reverse engineering the label.”

Instead of asking only whether a drug works, he begins with a harder question: If this program succeeds, what would a credible FDA or EMA label look like—and what evidence would regulators and payers require to support it?

That question forces clarity early. It shifts the discussion from enthusiasm to evidence, from biology to endpoints, and from storytelling to trial design, such as patient populations, comparator strategies, and statistical rigor.

Every HanchorBio program is evaluated against three core tests: 

• Is the clinical signal meaningful and interpretable? 
• Is the regulatory pathway executable? 
• Is the development strategy global? 

If those answers are yes, the company leans in. If not, it stops early.

For Dr. Luk, that is not caution – it is discipline.

The “Aha Moment” in JPM 2026

That discipline began to pay off visibly at the 44th J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in January 2026. In previous years, HanchorBio’s JPM conversations focused on scientific rationale and early-stage potential. This year was different. Dr. Luk, Chief Business Officer, Dr. Yuehua Cong, and Founder/CEO, Dr. Scott Liu arrived with a more integrated clinical story, clearer strategic positioning, and the added validation of HCB101’s out-licensing deal with Shanghai Henlius in June 2025.

What changed, according to Dr. Luk, was not just the data – it was the context.

Large pharmaceutical companies are actively planning for life beyond the PD-1 era. As competition intensifies and patent cliffs loom, they are increasingly seeking combinable immune backbones that can extend and strengthen existing franchises without introducing unacceptable safety risks.

That is where HCB101 began to look strategically important. HCB101 was no longer evaluated solely as a molecule but as a potential backbone for a broader immuno-oncology strategy.

At JPM 2026, the questions became more concrete: Which indications are most registrationally viable? How should combination development be sequenced? What partnership structure would best accelerate global execution?

When executives reviewed the safety and efficacy profile of HCB101, the discussion shifted. They began to see HCB101 not simply as another competitor, but as a potential strategic complement to existing therapies. As Dr. Luk put it, the dialogue moved from “This is interesting” to “How do we build this together?” 

For a biotech company, that is one of the clearest signals that a program has entered a new phase of maturity.

From Oncology to a Broader Immunology Strategy

Although HanchorBio is best known today for oncology, Dr. Luk does not see the company as limited to cancer. At its core, he sees it as a company built on fundamental immunology. 

He often describes the platform as functioning more like a dimmer switch than an on/off button. In oncology, the goal is to relieve inhibitory signaling and activate productive immune responses against tumors. In autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) or rheumatoid arthritis, the challenge is often the opposite: the immune system is overactive, misdirected, or both. In that setting, the goal is not to stimulate immunity, but to rebalance it.

That is what gives the platform broader strategic value. HanchorBio is not simply adding more indications; it is applying the same core capability – precise immune engineering – across different biological contexts without needing to build an entirely new platform from scratch. 

The company is also exploring how immune modulation intersects with central nervous system (CNS) disorders, where neuroinflammation and immune dysregulation are increasingly recognized as important biological drivers. For Dr. Luk, that creates a “dual-engine” growth strategy: oncology as the lead engine, with autoimmune disease and potentially CNS indications extending the platform’s reach without diluting its scientific logic.

Building the Talent and Culture to Go Global

Science alone does not build a global biotech. People do.

Dr. Luk believes the old “brain drain” dynamic is changing. For decades, top Asian scientists and drug developers stayed in the United States not because they lacked interest in returning home, but because there were too few opportunities to work on globally competitive projects with comparable ambition and standards. 

Now, he sees a more selective reverse talent drain.

The right people are willing to come back – but only if the science is compelling, the strategy is global, and the culture allows them to work at their highest level. HanchorBio wants to be that kind of company.

In Taipei, it is building what Dr. Luk describes as a Silicon Valley-style culture: relatively flat, evidence-driven, and designed so data wins arguments over hierarchy. At the same time, it aims to retain the execution speed and operational discipline that Asian teams often do exceptionally well. For experienced leaders from big pharma, he does not frame HanchorBio as just another job. He frames it as a chance to build. 

That is what attracts people who have already launched major products and want to do it again – this time with more ownership, more accountability, and more impact.

Why TIB Is a Launchpad, Not a Destination

This same long-term mindset also shapes Dr. Luk’s view of capital markets.

Over the course of his career, he has seen multiple funding paths succeed – from acquisitions by multinational pharma to public-market journeys. He has even rung the opening bell in both New York and Hong Kong. That is why he draws a sharp distinction between what he calls a “trophy listing” and a strategic listing.

A listing, he argues, should amplify a company’s strategy – not substitute for it.

HanchorBio was listed on the Taiwan Emerging Stock Market in 2025, and its Taiwan Innovation Board (TIB) approval marked another important milestone. Dr. Luk sees TIB as especially meaningful because it strengthens the structural foundations for global clinical development. In practical terms, that means:

• More sustainable capital access for global trials,
• Greater governance visibility for institutional investors and multinational partners, and
• Stronger resilience against short-term volatility.

If HanchorBio later pursues broader international capital strategies or a dual-listing, Dr. Luk says it will not be about symbolic presence. It will be about showing up with leverage, data, and optionality.

This is why, in his words, “TIB is a launchpad – not a destination”.

Defining the Future with H.O.P.E.

Looking ahead five years, Dr. Luk hopes the industry will remember one defining choice: 

HanchorBio trusted its engineering when much of the market had lost faith in CD47 biology. 

When the CD47 field was widely seen as a “graveyard”, the easiest decision would have been to walk away. Instead, the company stayed, with the conviction that the biology itself was not broken, only the way earlier molecules had been engineered. In Dr. Luk’s view, the task was not to abandon the target but to fix the code.

That mindset eventually led him to summarize HanchorBio’s philosophy with the acronym H.O.P.E.: HanchorBio, Optionality, Perseverance, and Execution Excellence. 

To him, it captures both the resilience required to survive biotech’s hardest cycles and the precision needed to turn promising science into durable medicines.

He is equally clear that HanchorBio’s future cannot rest on one molecule alone. HCB101 may be the current value driver, but the more consequential decision was refusing to become a single-asset company – to extend the same engineering logic into autoimmune disease and beyond, and in doing so become a broader immunology platform. 

That is also why he speaks of HanchorBio in unusually ambitious terms. Over the next several years, he hopes the company will be recognized as the “Genentech of Asia”, not merely an innovative biotech from the region, but a science-led, globally respected enterprise capable of helping define new standards for immune engineering and clinical execution. 

By the end of the interview, Dr. Luk returned to the same idea that has shaped his career:

Innovation from Asia should not be known only for speed. It should be known for setting the standard.

“We are not just hunting for a single lucky hit,” he said. “We are building a machine.“

Author

Richard Chau

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