Ability Pharmaceuticals, SA, a biopharmaceutical company focused on the development of innovative oral autophagy-inducing anticancer compounds, has announced a €7M ($7.7M) investment from a European-Canadian syndicate of life sciences investors, which will allow the company to fully finance its phase 2b clinical study of antitumor compound ABTL0812 in patients with pancreatic cancer.
 
AbilityPharma is completing the Phase 2b clinical trial with ABTL0812 with the aim of demonstrating greater efficacy than standard treatment FOLFIRINOX. The double-blind, placebo-controlled, first-line study in combination with FOLFIRINOX is ongoing in 23 hospitals in Spain, USA, France, and Israel. Efficacy results are expected by year-end.
 
Significant superior efficacy results will allow AbilityPharma to obtain financing for final development of ABTL0812 or to license it to a multinational pharmaceutical or biotechnology company, with the goal of making ABTL0812 available to pancreatic cancer patients in 2028.
 
“We are very pleased to complete this financing round and welcome CTI Life Sciences Fund’s Shermaine Tilley to our board of directors, which will enable us to accelerate the development of ABTL0812 in the short term,” stated Carles Domènech, PhD, Executive Chairman and CEO at AbilityPharma. “We are thankful to CTI Life Sciences, Inveready and the EIC Fund for completing this financing round, and to all our new and existing investors for their confidence in our team and for their support to our goals.  This investment will allow us to continue working tirelessly on taking ABTL0812 to patients with pancreatic cancer”.
 
Shermaine Tilley, PhD, MBA, Managing Partner at CTI Life Sciences Fund, said “We are delighted to provide financing for late-stage development of Ability Pharma’s innovative and highly promising treatment for pancreatic cancer. I am pleased to assume a position on their board of directors and will work with management and the board to optimize the value of ABTL0812 for patients and for investors”.