Just a year after it was established by venture capital company Eclipse and the Mayo Clinic, Nucleus RadioPharma has attracted $56 million in a series A investment round that will fund new facilities in the U.S. for the development, manufacture and distribution of radiopharmaceuticals.
Eclipse and GE HealthCare led the oversubscribed round, which drew more participants than it sought, as investors are intrigued by the potential of Nucleus to fill a void in the manufacture of radiopharmaceuticals.
Radiopharmaceuticals hold promise in the diagnosis of diseases and the treatment of several cancer types, but their development has been hindered by a variety of issues, including supply chain problems.
Nucleus is based in Rochester, Minnesota, near the Mayo Clinic, which is the world’s largest treatment center for radiopharmaceuticals. One of the problems in developing the drugs is their short shelf-life as radioactive materials decay quickly, leaving little time between manufacture and injection.
In addition to manufacturing, Nucleus is set up to control a new supply chain network, identifying target molecules, testing treatments, supporting regulatory approvals and delivering medication, Nucleus said. The network includes multiple regional sites.
“As truly targeted therapies, these drugs are proving not only to be highly effective but also to maintain a superior safety profile,” Charles Conroy, CEO of Nucleus, said. “This funding advances the reach and impact of these life-saving agents, allowing for therapies that can be mass-produced.”
Radiopharmaceuticals have attracted recent strong investor interest. RayzeBio assembled about $418 million across four venture capital rounds before going public through a mammoth $311 million IPO this past September.
Earlier this month, Eli Lilly announced the acquisition of Point Biopharma Global to join the cancer radiopharmaceutical arena for $1.4 billion. Point’s two lead therapeutic programs are aimed at metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer and GEP-NETs.