Ascentage Pharma's Cancer Drug Candidate Advances Toward US/China Trials

China's Ascentage Pharma reported two milestones for APG-1252, a novel Bcl-2/Bcl-XL inhibitor. In the US, the FDA granted Investigational New Drug approval for APG-1252 as a small-cell lung cancer treatment, and in China, the CFDA accepted the IND filing for the candidate. APG-1252 is a small molecule drug with a programmed cell death process (apoptosis) mechanism. Ascentage said APG-1252 is its sixth program to enter clinical developments worldwide and its third program to start US clinical trials. Ascentage is headquartered in Hong Kong with an R&D lab in Shanghai and a lab-manufacturing facility in Taizhou's China Medical City.