Cerdanyola del Vallès (Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain), May 30, 2026. AbilityPharma, a biopharmaceutical company specializing in the development of innovative oncology treatments, has announced the results of the phase IIb PanC-ASAP clinical trial at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO). The trial evaluates IBRILATAZAR (ABTL0812) in combination with FOLFIRINOX as a first-line treatment in patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC).

The PanC-ASAP study is an international, multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial conducted at 23 sites in the United States, Spain, France, and Israel. A total of 140 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer participated in the study, receiving IBRILATAZAR plus FOLFIRINOX or placebo plus FOLFIRINOX as first-line treatment.

Although the study did not meet its primary endpoint of progression-free survival (PFS) in the overall intent-to-treat population, an exploratory analysis showed a clinically relevant and consistent improvement in patients with ECOG performance status 0 treated with IBRILATAZAR plus FOLFIRINOX. In this subgroup, median progression-free survival was 11.1 months versus 6.5 months in the placebo group (a 70% increase), while median overall survival reached 19.3 months versus 12.0 months (a 60% increase).

These results support the continued clinical development of IBRILATAZAR in selected populations of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and suggest that ECOG performance status could be a relevant factor for identifying patients most likely to benefit from treatment.
 

Link to the ASCO abstract:

https://ascopubs.org/doi/10.1200/JCO.2026.44.16_suppl.4218
 

About metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC)

Metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC) is one of the tumors with the worst prognosis worldwide. It accounts for approximately 85-90% of all pancreatic tumors and is diagnosed at an advanced or metastatic stage in more than 50% of cases, due to the absence of early symptoms. Globally, more than 500,000 new cases are recorded each year, with an incidence that has progressively increased in recent decades. At the metastatic stage, median survival is typically between 3 and 6 months without active treatment; approximately one in five patients survives beyond 6 months, one-year survival is around 15%, and the five-year survival rate does not exceed 3%. Available therapeutic options, based mainly on chemotherapy with gemcitabine and Nab-paclitaxel or FOLFIRINOX, offer very limited efficacy, making the development of new therapeutic alternatives urgent.
 

About IBRILATAZAR (ABTL0812)

IBRILATAZAR (ABTL0812) is a first-in-class oral compound developed by AbilityPharma that induces selective cancer cell death through cytotoxic autophagy. The drug has previously demonstrated a favorable safety and efficacy profile in various solid tumors and is being developed for the treatment of cancers with high unmet medical needs.
 

About AbilityPharma

AbilityPharma is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing innovative cancer treatments, with a focus on autophagy as a new therapeutic strategy to induce selective death of cancer cells.

Current shareholders include Inveready, CTI Life Sciences Fund, EIC Fund, FiTalent, CDTI Innvierte, SODENA, SciClone Pharmaceuticals, its founders, and private investors. The company also receives financial support from the European Commission, the Ministry of Science and Innovation (Government of Spain), the Center for the Development of Industrial Technology (CDTI), the Official Credit Institute (ICO), ENISA and ACCIÓ (Government of Catalonia). The company is headquartered in the Parc Tecnològic del Vallès (Cerdanyola del Vallès, Barcelona).