With Lantheus in the process of being bought out by fellow radiopharmaceutical player Curium, the company is offloading its CDMO business and a U.S. manufacturing facility to another nuclear medicine specialist, PharmaLogic.
Earlier this week, PharmaLogic, which pitches itself as the only independent CDMO “of scale” dedicated solely to radiopharmaceuticals, said it struck a deal for an undisclosed sum to purchase Lantheus’ CDMO operations and its plant in Springfield, New Jersey.
The facility is equipped for manufacturing of theranostics and capabilities to support research and clinical development, PharmaLogic said in a release.
Once the deal closes, Lantheus’ related team will join Agilera, PharmaLogic’s therapeutic CDMO unit. Last April, PharmaLogic took a majority stake in the Norway-based Agilera Pharma, framing the move as a key step in establishing itself as the industry’s premier radiopharmaceutical CDMO with a global reach.
Agilera, itself originally founded as a subsidiary of the Institute for Energy Technology in Norway, already boasts a strong track record of nuclear medicine production for patients in the U.S., Europe and Asia, having delivered more than 600,000 doses at the time of the PharmaLogic acquisition’s announcement last April.
Meanwhile, as part of the new deal for Lantheus’ contracting business and plant, Agilera will chip in on a long-term supply agreement to manufacture lutetium Lu 177 dotatate. Sold by Novartis as Lutathera to treat neuroendocrine tumors, lutetium Lu 177 dotatate was recently approved by the FDA as a generic for the first time, with that distinction going to Curium and its so-called radioligand equivalent Bexlutry.
Curium, for its part, floated upward of $8 billion back in August to acquire Lantheus, in a deal that is still in the process of closing.
As for PharmaLogic, the company said the purchase from Lantheus will allow it to scale-up its U.S. radiopharmaceutical manufacturing capacity, noting that it will be able to offer end-to-end services for radioligand therapies on either side of the Atlantic, from early clinical development through to commercial launch and supply.
"This acquisition strengthens Agilera's unique capabilities in radioligand therapies and expands our capacity in the U.S.," Etienne Montagut, PharmaLogic’s CEO, said in a statement. "We are proud to welcome the talented Springfield team, who will help us scale our operations to meet growing demand from our partners and the patients they serve."
PharmaLogic’s deal follows a year of near-constant movement in the radiopharmaceutical field, with many of those developments playing out on the production and supply side.
Notably, Bristol Myers Squibb in August laid out $173 million by way of its RayzeBio unit to construct a new, 225,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Whitestown, Indiana. The plant will join the BMS subsidiary’s existing radiopharmaceutical facility some 20 miles southwest in Indianapolis.
RayzeBio’s top radiopharmaceutical candidate, RYZ101, is in phase 3 testing for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs) and early-stage development for small cell lung cancer.
Bristol posted positive topline results for RYZ101 in patients with GEP-NETs in October.