Telix unveils radiopharmaceutical spinoff Rhine Pharma following string of nuclear medicine acquisitions

There’s no denying it: The radiopharmaceuticals boom is here to stay. Now, Australia’s Telix Pharmaceuticals is doubling down on the action with plans to roll an academic collaboration into a fresh nuclear medicine subsidiary.

Telix on Tuesday unveiled Rhine Pharma, a new entity born from a collaboration between Telix and Germany’s Heidelberg University Hospital that's setting out to expand access to radiopharmaceuticals for cancer treatment and imaging alike.

While most radiopharmaceuticals today rely on lutetium-177 or actinium-225, Rhine is leveraging the isotopes technetium-99m and rhenium-188 for imaging and therapeutic uses, respectively.

Notably, Rhine’s isotopes are produced in generators rather than the reactors or cyclotrons predominantly used to churn out current nuclear medicines.

The use of on-site generators, coupled with rhenium’s short half-life of 16.9 hours, could ease production of radiopharmaceuticals in places with limited manufacturing infrastructure and simplify patient workflows at busy treatment centers, Telix posited in its release.

Telix and Heidelburg initially teamed up to develop a small molecule that could target the protein PSMA2. The idea was to be able to label the drug with either technetium for single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) scans or rhenium for a radioligand therapy.

In turn, Telix and Heidelburg created a potential next-generation theranostic compound dubbed RHN001, which Rhine is now moving into a phase 1/2a clinical study to assess the safety and efficacy of the isotopes in patients with advanced prostate cancer.

“Rhine Pharma is an example of identifying an access-to-medicine challenge and then working to fix it,” Richard Valeix, CEO of therapeutics at Telix, said in a statement. “While radiopharmaceuticals can be a powerful way to image and treat cancer, manufacturing doses and getting them to patients can be complex and costly, particularly in emerging markets or geographically dispersed populations.”

Rhine is already attempting to make good on that access ethos through its close work with the Nuclear Medicine Research Infrastructure facility at the University of Pretoria in South Africa. The facility opened in May on the promise of advancing nuclear medicine research in the region.

As it stands, Rhine is a wholly owned subsidiary of Telix. Once the spinout hits certain milestones, Telix plans to push Rhine out of the nest as an independent company.

Telix has been on a radiopharmaceutical roll this year, beginning with its $13.6 million acquisition of Texas-based CDMO IsoTherapeutics in February.

Just a few days after announcing that deal, Telix laid out $82 million more in cash and stock to purchase ARTMS Inc. and its cyclotron-based isotope production platform. The deal also included a manufacturing plant and a stockpile of ultrapure rare metals, Telix said at the time.

Last month, the Australian nuclear medicine specialist inked a deal worth up to $250 million for Florida-based RLS Radiopharmacies, securing access to RLS’ network of 31 radiopharmacies across 18 U.S. states.

The ARTMS and RLS acquisitions should allow the company to scale up production of key isotopes, ensure stable supply of PET and SPECT diagnostic tracers and bolster access to therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals across the U.S., Christian Behrenbruch, Telix’s managing director and group CEO, said in a statement last month.

Besides Telix's burst of activity, multiple other companies have also charted radiopharma moves this past year.

This week, for instance, CDMO Nucleus RadioPharma unveiled expansions at sites in Mesa, Arizona, and Springhouse, Pennsylvania, that are expected to boost the company’s production capacity by 200% and add about 100 total new jobs.

And, last week, nuclear medicine contractor SpectronRx said it inked a binding agreement to complete its first European radiolabeling plant at the Belgian Nuclear Research Center in Mol, Belgium. The build-out of the new facility is expected to wrap up next month, with SpectronRx noting that it hopes to kick off operations by 2025’s first quarter, pending manufacturing certification.

Also in September, radioisotope producer PanTera ginned up 93 million euros ($102.5 million) as part of an investment round led by EQT Life Sciences. PanTera said early last month that it plans to channel the bulk of the cash into the construction of a new manufacturing facility in Belgium.