AB-Therapeutics receives one million euros and changes name to Ability Pharmaceuticals
The Catalan biopharmaceutical company will devote these resources to clinical development of their drug for lung and pancreatic cancer.
By Biocat
Catalan biopharmaceutical company AB-Therapeutics has closed their second round of funding valued at one million euros: €300,000 were contributed by venture capitalists Inveready; €300,000, Genoma España in the form of a participative loan, and the rest, the company’s current partners, new investors and angel investors. In 2010, the company received an injection of capital from the cofounders and public funding from The Centre for Industrial Technological Development (CDTI) and ACC1Ó. Now, they have opened the door to new private investors.
"We’re extremely satisfied because the results of this round of funding have surpassed our expectations," explains Carles Domènech, CEO of AB-Therapeutics.
The company, based in the Autonomous University of Barcelona Research Park (PRUAB), will devote these resources to continuing clinical development of their experimental drug for lung and pancreatic cancer (ABTL0812) through approval from the Spanish Agency of Medicines and the beginning of phase I studies in patients with this type of tumor at the end of this year.
"We have been following AB-Therapeutics for some time now and we see eye-to-eye with the management and other investors," highlights Roger Piqué, head of Investment at Inveready. "Our investment in this company, which will soon move into clinical development of their first product, strengthens our portfolio in the biotechnology arena and demonstrates our desire to invest in companies with significant social return."
Name change
AB-Therapeutics, SL was founded in 2009 by AB-Biotics and doctors Carles Domènech and Jordi Espadaler. Since November 2011, AB-Biotics is no longer one of the equity partners in this company, which has changed its name to Ability Pharmaceuticals with the aim of highlighting its independence. In 2013, they expect to open a subsidiary in Boston (Massachusetts, USA).
Ability Pharmaceuticals will continue working to develop new oncology drugs that are unique and use an innovative action mechanism, called lipid analog drugs. They currently have two experimental drugs in the development stages: ABTL0812 and ABTL1014, for which preclinical development is expected to begin in fall 2012.
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