Radioligand Therapies and the Potential of ART
Cancer treatment has improved dramatically; however, there remains an enormous need for more therapies that offer greater precision and efficacy against tumors and deliver better safety and tolerability for patients. Radioligand therapy (RLT) is one of the most promising technologies which can address these unmet needs. In fact, recently approved RLTs have already significantly improved patient survival and quality of life.
The RLT landscape is currently dominated by beta-emitting isotopes, which sacrifice precision and efficacy in favor of centralized manufacturing and distribution. In contrast, alpha emitters used in ARTs have the potential to deliver significantly better efficacy to patients. Alpha radiation can result in greater damage to the cancer tissue by causing double stranded DNA breaks in cancer cells with less penetration in healthy tissue.
ARTBIO’s unique approach harnesses the power of ARTs and overcomes the challenges of existing RLTs.
Patients at the Core
We keep the needs of patients at our core – to effectively fight tumors. The ARTBIO approach rests upon four pillars:
Our holistic approach finds the combinations of target and drug molecule for ART that have the greatest chance of delivering improvements to patients. Our approach allows us to maximize the potential of ART and ultimately positively improve patient outcomes.
We work closely with discovery and development partners to advance next-generation radiopharmaceuticals specifically designed to improve patient outcomes.
Our ARTs use Pb212 because it can quickly deliver radiation to tumors that are most likely to respond. Pb212 is the ideal isotope because it:
- Is short lived and matches the properties of its small molecule carriers, thereby delivering most of its energy into the tumor, quickly.
- Has high stability in its carrier molecule, with potential positive impact on safety and efficacy.
- Can be imaged in SPECT/CT leading to refined clinical efficacy assessments.
In contrast to other ARTs in which the alpha isotopes are made in nuclear reactors or high energy cyclotrons with rigid schedules in large, centralized facilities, we are pioneering an optimized and proprietary isotope isolation technology.
Our patented AlphaDirectTM technology has unique advantages that make it a first-of-its-kind system to effectively isolate Pb212:
- Benchtop format, which can be operated in many different facilities that assemble therapeutic product.
- Simple process with no separation that results in 99.9%+ purity.
- Streamlined supply chain with starting materials derived from accessible nuclear industry stockpiles that minimize uncertainty and cost.
We are building a unique ART ecosystem to adequately deliver our therapies to as many eligible patients as possible. Our ecosystem acts as an end-to-end distributed manufacturing network with reliable, fast, and flexible delivery of our therapeutic candidates to the bedside.
Our Distributed Manufacturing approach is radically different from current pharmaceutical industry standards:
- Our infrastructure matches the dynamics of short-lived Pb212 with adequate redundancies and flexibility.
- Our strategic partnerships will help us maximize patient access and mitigate the shortcomings of centralized manufacturing approaches which, to date, have been unreliable in delivering therapies to eligible patients in need.