On a quest to carve out a spot as one of the nuclear medicine greats, Massachusetts-based radiopharmaceutical specialist Lantheus is placing some serious cash on the dealmaking table.
In a transaction that could ultimately work out to more than $1 billion in value, Lantheus is paying $250 million upfront to acquire clinical-stage radiopharma CDMO and drug discovery shop Evergreen Theragnostics.
As part of the deal, Evergreen and its investors could receive up to $752.5 million in additional milestone payments tied to the company's registrational diagnostic Octevy and its clinical and pre-clinical pipeline, Lantheus said in a release. Lantheus and Evergreen expect the deal to close in the second quarter of 2025.
The transaction will allow Lantheus to get its hands on Evergreen’s scalable radioligand therapy (RLT) manufacturing infrastructure, which includes a revenue-generating contracting business. Lantheus figures this will allow the company to supply its clinical trials and scale production for commercial launches while mitigating the risks that come with third-party partners.
Radiopharmaceuticals—which are radioactive drugs used to diagnose or treat disease—have quickly risen in popularity thanks to their powerful cancer-fighting potential. Still, a host of logistical challenges, from shortages of starting materials to the limited shelf lives of radiopharma products, have made the class a tricky one to tackle.
With that in mind, Lantheus says Evergreen is equipped to work with a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic isotopes, which Lantheus figures will help it navigate some of the complexities surrounding radiopharmaceutical development and production.
In addition to the manufacturing boost, Lantheus is also slated to acquire Octevy, a registrational-stage PET diagnostic agent for certain neuroendocrine tumors that could ultimately work in tandem with Lantheus’ oncology candidate PNT2003, plus a number of clinical and pre-clinical theranostic pairs.
Theranostics are a medical approach wedding diagnostic imaging with targeted therapy to more precisely treat diseases like cancer.
"With Evergreen's manufacturing and development capabilities, we become fully integrated and will ultimately make a difference in the lives of more patients,” Brian Markison, CEO on Lantheus, said in a statement.
Lantheus has been on something of an acquisition spree in recent months—though more often than not in the neurodegenerative diagnostic space.
In July, the company laid out an undisclosed sum to purchase Alzheimer’s PET diagnostic developer Meilleur Technologies, gaining access to the company’s radiopharmaceutical test for detecting beta amyloid plaques in the brain.
And earlier this month, Lantheus said it would pay $350 million upfront to acquire Life Molecular Imagining in a deal slated to help the radiopharma player build out a commercial Alzheimer’s disease franchise.