China's Antengene Corporation, a leading innovative, commercial-stage global biopharmaceutical company dedicated to discovering, developing and commercializing first-in-class and/or best-in-class therapeutics in hematology and oncology, today announced that it has filed a clinical trial application with the Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC) in Australia in order to initiate the Phase I ATRIUM trial of ATG-018 in patients with advanced solid tumors and hematologic malignancies. 

The primary objective of the study is to evaluate the safety and tolerability of ATG-018 as monotherapy to determine the appropriate dose for Phase II studies and assess preliminary efficacy, if available; the secondary objective is to characterize the pharmacology of ATG-018.

ATG-018 is an orally available, potent, selective small molecule ATR inhibitor. ATG-018 inhibits the ATR (ataxia telangiectasia mutated and Rad3-related) kinase, thus limiting cancer cells' ability to repair damaged DNA, in a mechanism also known as synthetic lethality.