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The Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (AEMPS) has approved a phase I/Ib clinical trial of a drug from Ability Pharmaceuticals in patients with advanced lung and pancreatic cancer. The first-in-humans trial on the drug, ABTL0812, will be conducted at Hospital Clínic Barcelona.

ABTL0812 is a once-daily oral drug that prevents the proliferation of tumor cells. It does so by inhibiting mTORC1 and mTORC2 signaling pathways, which are key to the enzyme needed for DNA synthesis. This results in death by autophagy of cancer cells, as well as reducing the likelihood of developing drug resistance. The drug has been proven highly effective in preclinical trials, with a high safety profile.

In Catalonia, lung cancer is the second most frequent among men and fourth among women. In 2012, it caused 1.59 million deaths around the world according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Pancreatic cancer is, in Catalonia, the seventh most deadly form of cancer in men and fourth in women.

Biotechnology firm Ability Pharmaceuticals, previously known as AB Therapeutics, is a Catalan drug research and development company founded in 2009. An independent subsidiary of AB-Biotics, Ability Pharmaceuticals is based at the Autonomous University of Barcelona Research Park (PRUAB).

More information is available in the Ability Pharmaceuticals press release.

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