ASLAN Pharmaceuticals Limited announced positive data from an ongoing multicentre phase 1b/2 clinical trial (ASLAN001-007) of varlitinib plus gemcitabine and cisplatin (gem/cis) in first-line biliary tract cancer (BTC). Varlitinib in combination with gem/cis has been well tolerated in BTC patients and the data also demonstrate increased activity of varlitinib in combination with gem/cis compared to gem/cis alone. The data will be presented during a poster presentation at the upcoming American Society of Clinical Oncology Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium (ASCO GI) in San Francisco on 18th January 2019. 16 patients completed the first cycle of chemotherapy with at least one post treatment scan and were evaluable for efficacy. Seven patients showed partial response (PR) and eight had stable disease (SD) for more than 12 weeks. The overall response rate (ORR) and disease control rate (DCR) for both cohorts were 43.8% and 93.8% respectively. In the 200 mg BID cohort, 4/11 patients achieved PR and 6/11 had SD with ORR and DCR of 36.4% and 90.9% respectively. In the 300 mg BID cohort, 3/5 patients achieved PR and 2/5 had SD with ORR and DCR of 60% and 100% respectively. These results compare favourably with the published historical results in the ABC-02 trial (Valle et. al., NEJM 2010) which reported ORR and DCR of 26.1% and 81.4% for patients dosed with gem/cis.