AbilityPharma receives a 1.6 million euro grant from the FDA and opens a crowdfunding campaign in Capital Cell

The European Union, through the Horizon 2020 program and the EIB, granted 5 million euros in March
The Biotech will complete the collection of 9.2 million this year to boost its research against pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer is considered an “orphan disease” with urgent clinical need: it is expected to be the second leading cause of cancer death in Europe by 2020

The Catalan biopharmaceutical company AbilityPharma, focused on the development of innovative oral anticancer compounds, undertakes the last stage of the investment round with which this year it will raise a total of 9.2 million euros for fund his research for a pancreatic cancer treatment based on the development of a new antitumor compound.

Last March, the company obtained 5 million euros from the Horizon 2020 Pilot Program, European Innovation Council (EIC) Accelerator; (Of this figure, 2.8 million will be a direct investment in the company's capital, managed through an EIB fund). In parallel, the US FDA just awarded a 1.6 million euro ($ 1.9 million) grant to AbilityPharma for the clinical development of this molecule. Likewise, AbilityPharma finalizes the signing of an agreement with an international industrial partner that will contribute 1 million dollars in this phase.

Finally, and to complete the development of the clinical study, AbilityPharma begins a campaign to raise 1.6 million euros in the collective investment platform Capital Cell.

During 2018 and 2019, AbilityPharma attracted 4.4 million euros from investors such as Inveready, Fitalent (Everis Group), private investors through Capital Cell, the founding partners and public funds of the CDTI. In total, since its founding in 2009, Ability Pharma has achieved a total of 13.8 million in financing, of which 6.5 in capital, 2.7 in public aid and 4.6 in credits, in addition to payments for milestones of technology partners.

With these investments, AbilityPharma accelerates the process to advance the validation of its new investigational molecule. The company, based in Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), has developed an innovative molecule, ABTL0812, capable of transforming the paradigm of first-line treatment of pancreatic cancer. This new molecule causes selective autophagy of cancer cells without affecting healthy cells. ABTL0812 has been positively tested in phase 2 clinical trials, as first-line therapy in patients with endometrial cancer or squamous lung cancer, in Europe.

AbilityPharma's next goal is to conduct an international multicenter, double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2 clinical trial in pancreatic cancer to investigate ABTL0812 in combination with FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy. The study will include reference centers in Spain, France, other European countries, Israel and the United States.

Upon completion of the clinical trial in 2022, AbilityPharma's goal is to establish a license agreement with a multinational pharmaceutical company to further develop ABTL0812, with the aim of making it available to pancreatic cancer patients by 2024 and further developing it for others. types of cancer.

Una enfermedad huérfana

El cáncer de páncreas está considerado una “enfermedad huérfana” con una necesidad clínica urgente de nuevas terapias eficaces y seguras. Hasta el momento, la quimioterapia ha sido el principal tratamiento para todas las etapas del cáncer de páncreas. Con ABTL0812, sin embargo, se potencian los efectos de varios tipos de quimioterapia sin aumentar su toxicidad.

El cáncer de páncreas afecta mayoritariamente a personas de entre 65 y 70 años y es un tumor de difícil diagnóstico y una alta mortalidad. Dicho de otro modo, el cáncer de páncreas no es el más frecuente, pero si el que tiene la tasa de supervivencia más baja entre los principales tipos de cáncer: pulmón, colorrectal, mama y próstata.
En los últimos años, ha aumentado su incidencia y, solo en España, se estima que en 2030 habrá unos 9.000 nuevos casos anuales, lo que supone un incremento del 40%. En 2020, se prevé que sea la segunda causa de muerte por cáncer en Europa, donde se estima una mortalidad anual de 128.000 personas por este tipo de cáncer. A nivel mundial, el cáncer de páncreas ya es la séptima causa principal de muerte relacionada con el cáncer.

Sobre AbilityPharma

AbilityPharma es una compañía biofarmacéutica fundada en 2009, con sede en Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona), y centrada en el desarrollo de compuestos anticancerosos innovadores orales, que producen citotoxicidad mediada por autofagia selectiva en células cancerosas. La molécula ABTL0812 es el activo más avanzado y ya ha sido probado positivamente en ensayos clínicos de fase 2, como terapia de primera línea en pacientes con cáncer endometrio o cáncer escamoso de pulmón, en Europa.

Entre los actuales accionistas se encuentran los fondos de capital riesgo Inveready, Fitalent (Grupo Everis) y SODENA, el CDTI, sus fundadores e inversores privados, y cuenta con el apoyo financiero de ACCIO (Generalitat de Catalunya), de la Comisión Europea (EIC Accelerator) y del CDTI, ENISA y MINECO (Gobierno de España).