20.02.2026

The ARI Project at Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS, supported by the Fundació Glòria Soler, has been recognised with the 2025 National Scientific Patronage Award, presented by the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation as part of the National Research Awards, for the collective patronage model that has promoted the development of the first CAR-T therapies integrated into the European public health system.
This award recognises the contribution of society, companies and foundations to scientific progress, and at the Glòria Soler Foundation we are very pleased to be part of initiatives that transform philanthropic support into tangible advances in research and innovation.
The ARI Project was launched in 2015 as a charitable initiative linked to the story of Ariana Benedé Jover, honorary patron of the Fundació Glòria Soler, and became a fundraising campaign with a clear goal: to develop a proprietary CAR-T therapy for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who have no other treatment options.
Thanks to this impetus, Hospital Clínic-IDIBAPS has developed:
• ARI-0001, the first CAR-T therapy approved by the Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products, indicated for patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and refractory lymphomas. It is the first CAR-T developed entirely in Europe to obtain approval from a regulatory agency.
• ARI-0002h, aimed at the treatment of relapsed multiple myeloma, approved as a non-industrially manufactured advanced therapy medicinal product.
In addition, the project has opened up new lines of research with dual CAR-T for lymphomas (ARI-003), CAR-T for HER2+ breast cancer (ARI-HER2) and tumour-infiltrating lymphocyte (TIL) therapies for melanoma and metastatic triple-negative breast cancer.
Since its implementation, more than 600 patients have been treated with CAR-T at the Clínic Barcelona Comprehensive Cancer Centre, with high remission rates in highly complex diseases.