MUNICH & GARCHING, Germany & CHALK RIVER, Ontario--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ITM Isotope Technologies Munich SE, a leading radiopharmaceutical biotech company, and Canadian Nuclear Laboratories (CNL), Canada’s premier nuclear science and technology organization, today announced that the companies have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to explore the development and industrial-scale production of Actinium-225, an extremely rare alpha-emitting radioisotope with heightened potential in precision oncology. Under the terms of the agreement, the organizations will collaborate on the development, manufacturing, and distribution pathways for the medical radioisotope. Further details of the agreement have not been disclosed.

Targeted Alpha Therapy (TAT) has been rapidly gaining growing interest from the scientific and medical community. Alpha-emitters, particularly Actinium-225, are in high demand for their ability to cause irreparable damage to cancer cells. Notably, Actinium-225 emits powerful, high-energy alpha particles with a short penetration range, which enables highly precise treatment of tumor cells, including hard-to-target micro metastases, with minimal impact to surrounding healthy tissue. In preclinical studies, TAT has shown remarkable results, destroying cancer cells by effectively breaking the bonds in their DNA. Actinium-225 can be labelled to a variety of peptide ligands or antibodies to specifically target cancer cells in a wide range of tumor indications.

As the current annual global production of Actinium-225 is miniscule, one of the biggest challenges in harnessing the full potential of the alpha-emitter is ensuring its supply. CNL and ITM have the expertise and infrastructure in place to work to sufficiently bypass the supply hurdle to develop and produce this coveted radioisotope with huge therapeutic potential.
“CNL is very excited to enter into this agreement with ITM, an industry leader that shares our ambition of bringing the next-generation of medical radioisotopes to the global market,” commented Joe McBrearty, CNL’s President and CEO. “It is also an exciting evolution of CNL’s work in the field of medical radioisotopes, and makes use of our capabilities in target development, radiochemistry, radioisotope analysis and by-product management. Working with ITM, we hope to leverage these capabilities to accelerate the development of this promising new isotope, and to establish a commercial pipeline for what we believe will be a ground-breaking new cancer treatment.”

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