AB-Therapeutics SL, a clinical-stage pharmaceutical biotech company in early 2012, held the first meeting of its International Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) in its facilities at Bellaterra, Barcelona on May 27^th.



The meeting gathered together for the first time the whole panel of AB-Therapeutics advisors that is integrated by a group of experts that can support all aspects related to the research and development of cancer drugs, from discovery up to Phase II clinical trials. The SAB is composed by Antonio Perez MD (Chairman of the SAB) who held senior positions, including Medical Director,  in clinical development programs at Almirall, Novartis (Headquarters) and Esteve; Jesús Llenas PhD, former Head of Preclinical Pharmacology at Almirall; Peter Wyld MD, who held senior positions, including Medical Director, in clinical development of compounds for oncology at Novartis, J&J Oncologicals, Biogen and Amgen; José Miguel Lizcano PhD, who has strong expertise in signal transduction and is Professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; José Luis Fábregas PhD, who was Senior Director of Pharmaceutical Development at Almirall; Jesús García Foncillas MD PhD, who have strong knowledge on clinical oncology and clinical development of new drug and is the is currently the Director of Oncology and Radiotherapy at the University Clinic, University of Navarra and is member of the Steering Committee for the European Medicines Agency (EMA); and José Luis Perez Gracia MD PhD, clinical oncologist at University Clinic, University of Navarra, with broad experience in drug development both at the academia and at the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly.


The objectives of the meeting were fully achieved, and more specifically, evaluating the competitiveness of AB-Therapeutics technology, the identification of the strategy towards the successful Clinical Trial Application (CTA)  of the drug candidate ABTL0812 and the design of a  clinical trial envisaged to allow a proof of concept of this compound in cancer patients in early 2012.
The SAB agreed to meet again in a 6 month period to evaluate the evolution of the projects.

ABOUT AB-THERAPEUTICS

AB-Therapeutics is a drug discovery and development company headquartered in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, with planned US facilities in Boston. The company was cofounded in late 2009 by AB Biotics, SA, a company publicly traded at the Spanish alternative stock market (MAB), Carles Domenech (CEO) and Jordi Espadaler (VP Discovery Research).
AB-Therapeutics develops safer human therapeutics targeting cell membranes to treat cancer and other indications with unmet medical needs. It has a product ABT0812 in regulatory preclinical development, with Phase I clinical trials (first in man) starting early 2012. A second drug candidate ABT1014 will start preclinical development in 4Q2011.