Radiotherapeutics remain in the deal-making frame

Drug development is experiencing a quiet surge of interest in radioisotope conjugates. Within this, deal bankers will have noted another trend: buying rights to products currently used as radiotracers with a view to redesigning these for therapeutic purposes.

Yesterday Lantheus Holdings did a deal that could end up having such a focus, licensing from the private company Noria Therapeutics rights to NTI-1309, a PET oncology imaging agent. Lantheus’s plan is to take NTI-1309 through clinical trials and offer it to pharma companies for use in oncology drug development.

The primary focus remains on NTI-1309’s use as an imaging agent, though it is possible that this might have therapeutic use if an interested company wanted to take things that way. This is precisely what Novartis also did yesterday in licensing two PET tracers from Sofie Biosciences (Novartis goes nuclear, again, March 30, 2021).

And the two deals have another key aspect in common: the assets involved all target fibroblast activation protein (FAP), a cell surface protein present on some cancers.

Little is disclosed about NTI-1309 beyond the fact that it hits FAP. The Sofie/Novartis assets, FAPI-46 and FAPI-74, are currently conjugated to the positron emitter gallium-68, and redirecting them to therapeutic use would typically involve substituting this radioisotope with one emitting alpha or beta radiation, such as actinium-225 or lutetium-177 respectively.

Lantheus has a focus on diagnostics and therapeutics, the latter through a pair of PSMA-targeting prostate cancer projects, I-131-1095 and the Bayer-partnered BAY 2315497. These respectively use iodine-131 and thorium-227 as radioisotope payloads.

That this is a hot area for deal-making is clear. Lantheus strengthened its position through an all-share takeover of Progenics in 2019. Progenics had separately disputed Endocyte’s rights to a PSMA-directed radiotherapeutic; Endocyte was acquired by Novartis.

Two years ago Clovis licensed 3B Pharmaceuticals’ FAP-2286, another FAP-targeting asset being developed primarily for imaging when conjugated to gallium-68. But there is a secondary focus on therapeutic use if its conjugated radioisotope is changed to lutetium-177.

And, as far as deals go, perhaps the most prominent focus on the FAP target comes courtesy of Point Therapeutics, a group being listed on Nasdaq by reversing into a special-purpose acquisition company called Therapeutics Acquisition Corp (Point’s path leads to a Spac, March 19, 2021). One of Point’s pipeline projects, PNT2004, targets FAP-alpha, though a decision has yet to be made about the radioisotope this will use.

Expect Lantheus to pay close attention to any clinical progress made by Point, Clovis and Novartis.