Ability Pharmaceuticals, SL today announced that the company has entered into an agreement with the NASDAQ-listed US company SciClone Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (SCLN) granting SciClone an exclusive license to develop and market the novel anticancer ABTL0812 in China and some adjacent territories.
 
Under the terms of the agreement, AbilityPharma has granted SciClone exclusive rights to develop, promote, market, distribute and sell ABTL0812 in China, as well as Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and Vietnam, getting access to follow-up compounds. AbilityPharma will receive an upfront payment and research funding as well as development, regulatory and sales milestone payments, potentially totaling more than $20 million; AbilityPharma will also be eligible to receive royalties on sales. SciClone will be responsible for all aspects of development, product registration and commercialization in the partnered regions, having access to data generated by AbilityPharma.
 
Carles Domènech, Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of AbilityPharma, stated: “We are excited to partner with SciClone, a NASDAQ US company that has a strong presence in such a rapidly growing market like China, which shares our enthusiasm and sense of urgency for bringing important new cancer therapeutics to patients. The collaboration with SciClone represents meaningful support for our development efforts. This agreement represents the first one signed for China by the Catalan and Spanish Biotech Industry, and we are very proud of it.”
 
About ABTL0812
 
ABTL0812 is a first-in-class PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway inhibitor for the treatment of solid tumors.  ABTL0812 has a novel mechanism of action, which has shown both in vitro and in vivo high efficacy in tumor settings, including resistant cancer models. It up-regulates TRIB3 leading to inhibition of Akt phosphorylation, which results in decreased activity of mTORC1 (Published in Clinical Cancer Research, Erazo et al., December 2015). ABTL0812 is active in models of multiple solid tumors as single agent and potentiates the anti-cancer effect of chemotherapy as well. The compound plays also a relevant role in tumor stem cells.
 
AbilityPharma has completed a Phase 1/1b clinical trial of orally administered ABTL0812 in 29 advanced cancer patients with solid tumors and presented the study results at AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics (Vidal et al.) in Boston in November 2015. This first-in-humans clinical study was designed to explore ABTL0812’s safety and efficacy profile. Outstanding safety and tolerability with several long-term disease stabilizations were demonstrated in patients progressing after previous chemotherapy lines, two of them stabilized over one year. The study showed the inhibition of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR pathway based on biomarkers, with correlation with ABTL0812 plasma levels. A full Phase 2 clinical program has been designed in several advanced tumor indications including endometrial and lung cancer (ongoing). US FDA and Europe EMA granted ABTL0812 Orphan Drug Status for the pediatric cancer neuroblastoma.
 
About Ability Pharmaceuticals
 
Ability Pharmaceuticals (www.abilitypharma.com) is a Catalan research-based biopharmaceutical company established in 2009 with headquarters in Cerdanyola (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain) at Parc Tecnològic del Vallès and Parc de Recerca UAB. In addition to ABTL0812, the company has another candidate, ABTL0815 in preclinical development. Current shareholders include the biotech venture firm Inveready, its founders and private investors, and has the financial support from ACCIO (Government of Catalonia), CDTI and MINECO (Government of Spain).
 
About SciClone
 
SciClone Pharmaceuticals is a revenue-generating, specialty pharmaceutical company with a substantial commercial business in China and a product portfolio spanning major therapeutic markets including oncology, infectious diseases and cardiovascular disorders. SciClone's proprietary lead product, ZADAXIN® (thymalfasin), is approved in over 30 countries and may be used for the treatment of hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and certain cancers, and as a vaccine adjuvant, according to the local regulatory approvals. The Company has successfully in-licensed and commercialized products with the potential to become future market leaders and to drive the Company's long-term growth, including DC Bead®, a novel treatment for liver cancer. Through its promotion business with pharmaceutical partners, SciClone also markets multiple branded products in China which are therapeutically differentiated. SciClone is a publicly-held corporation based in Foster City, California, and trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol SCLN. For additional information, please visit www.sciclone.com.
 
 
 
Contact information:
 
Carles Domènech
CEO Ability Pharmaceuticals
email: media.relations@abilitypharma.com