Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd (ASX:RAD) and the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center have launched Radiopharm Ventures, LLC, a joint venture company created to develop novel radiopharmaceutical therapeutic products for cancer.
Radiopharm Ventures unites MD Anderson’s innovative and proprietary technologies in antigen discovery and molecular imaging with RAD’s product development expertise.
Promising therapeutic frontier
The joint venture’s first task is to develop at least four therapeutic products based on MD Anderson intellectual property.
“Radiopharmaceuticals continue to be rapidly developed as a highly promising therapeutic frontier in oncology,” said Radiopharm CEO Riccardo Canevari.
“We are pleased to have this opportunity to collaborate with MD Anderson and its tremendous scientists as we work to make significant in-roads into cancer therapy for the benefit of patients.”
Radiopharmaceuticals are designed to deliver small doses of radiation to specifically targeted cells for either therapeutic or diagnostic purposes.
Effective cancer radiopharmaceuticals require tumour-specific targets not found in healthy tissue.
MD Anderson researchers have established novel platforms to discover and validate tumour-specific antigens, offering promising candidates for the development of new radiopharmaceuticals.
Tackling colorectal cancers
The first potential therapeutic candidate is a humanised immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody against the tumour-specific antigen B7-H3, also known as CD276, which is highly expressed in several common tumours but not in healthy cells.
The antibody was developed in the laboratory of David Piwnica-Worms MD PhD, chair of Cancer Systems Imaging at MD Anderson.
Pre-clinical studies suggest the candidate radiotherapeutic antibody is effective in eliminating resistant colorectal cancers in laboratory models.
“Based on our early pre-clinical data, B7-H3 represents a promising radiotherapeutic target, and we look forward to having the opportunity to work with the team at Radiopharm with the goal of advancing our therapeutic candidate toward future clinical studies,” Piwnica-Worms said.
In addition, the work of Samir Hanash MD PhD, professor of Clinical Cancer Prevention at MD Anderson, has resulted in extensive characterisation of the cancer surfaceome — the catalogue of proteins found specifically on the surface of cancer cells across cancer types — resulting in novel targets with cancer-restricted expression.
Priority based on unmet need
The new joint venture company will be able to select additional targets from this dataset to prioritise selection based on unmet need in oncology.
“The cancer surfaceome holds a wealth of information about antigens restricted to cancer,” Hanash said.
“Mining the data, generated at the petabyte level, has uncovered many compelling targets that have not previously been explored, and we are pleased for the opportunity to collaborate with Radiopharm in developing innovative new treatment options for some targets.”
Once targets have been selected, Radiopharm will collaborate with Hanash and Piwnica-Worms at MD Anderson to advance pre-clinical development of potential therapeutic candidates.
The fine print
Radiopharm Ventures, LLC is a limited liability company jointly owned by Radiopharm Theranostics (USA) Inc (a wholly-owned subsidiary of Radiopharm) (51%) and MD Anderson (49%).
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has granted a licence to Radiopharm Ventures for certain patent and technology rights for development and commercialisation effective from September 11, 2022.
The licence may continue until the later of 20 years from effective date or the end of the life of the licensed patents.
The agreement between Radiopharm Ventures and MD Anderson includes royalty and milestone payment obligations that arise from the development and/or commercialisation of licensed products.
The costs will be shared by Radiopharm and MD Anderson and both parties will share ownership of the resultant intellectual property.