Ratio Therapeutics, which specializes in the growing field of radiopharmaceuticals, has inked a deal to build a new research and manufacturing facility in Salt Lake City, Utah.
The plant, which Ratio expects to get up and running in the second half of 2027, is part of a new pact with the Medical Innovation Technology Management division of Wasatch Group, which is partnering on the facility and will chip in on its construction.
In a May 8 press release, Ratio said the new facility will feature 65,000 square feet of manufacturing space for the company's "current and future" pipeline of next-generation radiopharmaceuticals, which are being developed to both treat and monitor cancer.
The plant will be scalable to support potential commercial manufacturing in the future, Ratio added. It will make up part of Wasatch's Medical Innovation Technology Campus, which hosts a range of startups, medical labs and research facilities in close proximity to The University of Utah and "other healthcare giants," according to Ratio's release.
The Salt Lake City location provides access to key materials and a strategically located international airport to support the stringent supply chain demands of radiopharmaceutical development and commercialization, the company added.
“This facility not only places us near potential suppliers, such as Nusano, but also provides the infrastructure needed to meet future manufacturing demands at commercial scale and represents a major step toward Ratio’s mission of developing and rapidly transitioning innovative radiopharmaceuticals to the clinic,” Jack Hoppin, Ph.D., Ratio’s chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.
Nusano, located in Salt Lake City, is a privately held physics company that specializes in making the medical radioisotopes that form a key component of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals.
The resource itself—and the nuclear medicine field more broadly—have frequently been hampered by supply constraints.
Despite those persistent logistical challenges, the popularity of radiopharmaceuticals has boomed in recent years, attracting the attention of major pharma outfits like Novartis, which itself has two approved radiotherapies in Lutathera and Pluvicto.
Last November, Ratio linked up with Novartis in a deal worth up to $745 million to collaborate on the research and selection of a cancer candidate against SSTR2-expressing tumors. SSTR2 is a protein expressed in a variety of tumors, including neuroendocrine tumors, small cell lung carcinoma, meningiomas, breast cancer and colorectal cancer.
And in March 2024, Ratio expanded a partnership with radiopharmaceutical CDMO PharmaLogic to help advance its fibroblast activation protein-alpha (FAP)-targeted radiotherapy for soft tissue sarcoma.
PharmaLogic, for its part, shelled out an undisclosed sum to acquire a majority stake in Norway’s Agilera Pharma in April. The deal forms part of PharmaLogic’s strategy to position itself as the industry's first global contract manufacturer specifically dedicated to radiopharmaceuticals.