After spending 20 years at Novartis, Radiopharm Theranostics Ltd. CEO Riccardo Canevari told BioWorld that when he joined Radiopharm he wanted to focus on something different within radiopharmaceuticals where no one was playing. “I believe these new modalities are at the beginning of their potential, much like in the immuno-oncology space years ago. That’s a nice place to be,” he said, but it’s not only about competition, it’s also about understanding what other companies are doing and if there is a disease area or a mechanism of action that is not being explored, he said.
Autophagy of cancer cells has been frequently observed during radiotherapy. In addition, pancreatic cancer-associated fibroblasts can compromise the radiotherapeutic effect by promoting the autophagy of the irradiated pancreatic cancer cells.
Sonata Therapeutics Inc. and the Champalimaud Foundation have announced a research collaboration for the development of Sonata’s SNT-3012 for the treatment of pancreatic and colorectal cancers.
Monopar Therapeutics Inc. has released promising preclinical imaging data of a therapeutic radioisotope bound to its proprietary urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR)-targeting agent, MNPR-101.
Astellas Pharma Inc. has patented new proteolysis targeting chimeras (PROTACs) comprising a cereblon E3 ubiquitin ligase-binding moiety coupled to GTPase KRAS (G12V mutant)-targeting agent through a linker.
Tumors in the stomach and pancreas are known to express claudin 18.2 (CLDN18.2) and the absence of expression in normal tissues makes it an attractive therapeutic target.
Hangzhou Zhongmei Huadong Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has described GTPase KRAS (G12D mutant) inhibitors reported to be useful for the treatment of cancer.
Monopar Therapeutics Inc. has received human research ethics committee (HREC) clearance in Australia to commence a first-in-human phase I dosimetry trial of its novel radiopharmaceutical MNPR-101-Zr in patients with advanced cancers.
