While the biopharma industry flocks to antibody-drug conjugates because of their ability to act as guided biological missiles to eliminate cancer cells, some companies are embracing another solution that can precisely target cancer—radiopharmaceuticals.
Bayer is upping its ante in the space, signing on with PanTera, a new manufacturer of actinium-225 (Ac-225), a rare, alpha-emitting isotope that acts as starting material for a new generation of radiopharmaceuticals.
With the agreement, PanTera will supply Ac-225 to Bayer for clinical trial needs starting in the second half of 2024. It is the first deal with a major drugmaker for PanTera, a joint venture established two years ago by particle accelerator technology specialist IBA and the Belgium government’s nuclear research center SCK CEN.
While radiopharma trailblazer Novartis has had pancreatic cancer drug Lutathera on the market since 2018, with its follow-on Pluvicto arriving in 2022, those were developed using the beta-emitting isotope lutetium-177.
“Radiopharmaceuticals that exist today for therapy are essentially based on lutetium-177 and a few other isotopes. Lutetium-177 is the big boom right now,” PanTera CEO Sven Van Den Berghe said in an interview with Fierce Pharma. “The next revolution is coming right after that, which is the actinium-225, and it requires a completely different production route, which is the space we are working in.”
Less than two months ago, Bristol Myers Squibb entered the radiopharma race with its $4.1 billion acquisition of RayzeBio, paying more than triple what the biotech secured during its IPO when it went public just three months previously. The draw for BMS was RayzeBio’s platform based on Ac-225.
“It’s more efficient to destroy the cancer cell,” PanTera’s chief business officer, Christophe Malice, said in the interview.
In addition to being more destructive to the cancer cell, as an alpha emitter, an Ac-225 therapy can be more fine-tuned to the target, PanTera says.
PanTera is in a “unique position” to be a leading supplier of Ac-225 in Europe, the company said in its release this week.
In June of last year, the company struck a supply deal with Bill Gates-founded TerraPower Isotopes, which extracts Ac-225 from legacy nuclear material in the U.S. PanTera will serve as TerraPower’s European partner.
While small-scale suppliers are starting to emerge and can take care of some of the demand for clinical trials, PanTera’s goal is to quickly scale up to meet the oncoming commercial demand.
“In the 2027-29 period, these drugs will really be coming out of the clinical trials and be launched on the market. That’s when we want our big-scale supply to be available,” Van Den Berghe said.