As part of strategic collaboration and licence agreement, the partnership will offer first broadly-available imaging biomarker research tool to pharmaceutical companies and major academic centers carrying out research and development on immuno-oncology treatments, including combination therapies.
According to the Cancer Research Institute, currently more than 1,500 clinical trials on checkpoint inhibitors are ongoing, which is a six fold increase in the last three years.
Lantheus president and CEO Mary Anne Heino said: “Our collaboration with NanoMab provides Lantheus the opportunity to extend our diagnostic and radiopharmaceutical expertise into the fast growing market of immuno-oncology.
“We already serve the oncology field with several radiopharmaceutical agents and are excited to work with NanoMab to bring the first broadly available PD-L1 imaging research tool to the global pharmaceutical community.”
As per terms of the deal, Lantheus will licence NanoMab’s NM-01, an advanced radiopharmaceutical biomarker camelid single-domain antibody that has showed a high affinity for PD-L1 protein.
NM-01 is believed to provide a specific and non-invasive approach to diagnosis, including use in whole-body imaging, or virtual biopsy. NM-01 enables detection of PD-L1 expression in immuno-oncology studies, either before or during immuno-oncology treatment.
The NM-01 is in phase 1 clinical development with 21 patients presently recruited in a trial, which will enroll a total of 50 patients. The agent is said to have a short half-life and offers diagnostically significant results in around two hours.
NanoMab intends to file an investigational medicinal product dossier (IMPD) in the UK in the second half of this year.
NanoMab CEO Ting Hong Hoi said: “NanoMab is proud to partner with Lantheus for the development and the commercialization of NM-01, as we think our unique technology can help progress innovation in immuno-oncology.”
Lantheus is involved in the development, manufacturing and commercialisation of advanced diagnostic imaging agents and products, while NanoMab is a biopharmaceutical firm focused on the development of next generation radiopharmaceuticals for cancer precision medicine.