Radiopharm Theranostics teams up with GenesisCare to develop solutions for hard-to-treat cancers
Radiopharm and GenesisCare will undertake clinical trials to assess novel radiopharmaceuticals.
Clinical-stage radiotherapeutics company Radiopharm Theranostics (ASX: RAD) has announced a two-year strategic research collaboration with Australian specialist company GenesisCare to develop novel radiopharmaceuticals for complex, hard-to-treat cancers.
The companies will work together on Australian-based phase 1 clinical trials for the safety and tolerability of novel radiopharmaceuticals, focusing on areas of high unmet need in oncology.
GenesisCare’s contract research organisation (CRO) and imaging research organisation (IRO) have been engaged to implement three trials involving Radiopharm’s platform of radiopharmaceutical nanobodies.
The trials will involve a proprietary nanobody from the Nano-mAbs platform which targets the PDL1 expression in non-small cell lung cancer; a PTPu targeting peptide for brain tumors; and a PSA targeting antibody focused on free human prostate kallikrein (PSA) in prostate cancer cells.
Small doses of radiation
Radiopharmaceuticals deliver small doses of radiation to targeted cells for therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.
To date, the majority of clinical developments in radiopharmaceuticals have targeted metastatic prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumours.
Radiopharm managing director Riccardo Canevari said they are fast becoming a highly-promising therapeutic frontier in oncology.
“Radiopharmaceuticals offer new hope to patients who may have exhausted all other treatment options,” he said.
“We are delighted to be extending and strengthening our partnership with GenesisCare to advance the future of radiopharmaceuticals and improve access to innovative therapies for patients all over the world.”
Platform technologies
Radiopharm has a pipeline of six distinct and highly-differentiated platform technologies spanning peptides, small molecules and monoclonal antibodies for use in cancer treatments.
The technologies are in pre-clinical and clinical stages of development with some of the world’s leading universities and institutes.
The pipeline is based on the potential to be first-to-market or best-in-class.
Clinical programs include one phase II and three phase I trials in a variety of solid tumour cancers including breast, kidney and brain.
In February, Radiopharm announced it would make moves to obtain a secondary listing on the Nasdaq capital market.
Earlier this month, the company paid $5.9 million to acquire US-based Pharma15 Corporation which is seeking to overcome widespread patient resistance to common prostate cancer treatments.