ABM Announces First Patient Dosed in Phase I Clinical Trial of MEK Inhibitor for Solid Tumor

Excerpt from the Press Release:

SAN DIEGO and SHANGHAI, May 4, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — ABM Therapeutics, an innovative clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, with an emphasis on developing drugs with high blood–brain barrier (BBB) penetration for CNS diseases including brain metastases, today announced that the first patient was successfully dosed with ABM-168 in the United States.

MEK (mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase), a key kinase of the MAPK pathway, is frequently activated in various cancers, including those with RAS mutations. These mutations are present in 20% of human cancers and 20-30% of NSCLC. ABM-168, a novel small molecule MEK inhibitor developed by ABM, exhibits good water solubility, high cell permeability and brain penetration. Preclinical studies have clearly demonstrated its anti-cancer properties, particularly in intracranial animal models.

“The dosing of the first patient with ABM-168 in the USA represents another important milestone for ABM. ABM-168 is a strategically important program for ABM’s development of combination therapies,” Dr. Chen Chen, founder and CEO of ABM Therapeutics said. “Selective MEK inhibitors have the ability to inhibit tumor growth and induce cell death in RAF- and RAS-mutant cell lines. A MEK inhibitor in combination with a BRAF inhibitor has been demonstrated to be more effective and less toxic than a single BRAF inhibitor, which has become the standard of care for patients with BRAF-mutated melanoma. The combination of a MEK inhibitor with other anti-cancer drugs such as KRAS inhibitors and PD-1/PD-L1 antibodies is also explored. We look forward to the early clinical data which will help us to figure out the most effective combination for treating cancers, particularly those with high brain metastasis rates.”

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