The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center (MD Anderson) and Radiopharm Theranostics Limited (Radiopharm) announced the launch of Radiopharm Ventures, LLC, a joint venture company created to develop novel radiopharmaceutical therapeutic products for cancer. Radiopharm Ventures brings together MD Anderson's innovative and proprietary technologies in antigen discovery and molecular imaging with Radiopharm's expertise in developing radiopharmaceutical products. The joint venture will focus initially on developing at least four therapeutic products based on MD Anderson intellectual property.

Radiopharmaceuticals are designed to deliver small doses of radiation to specifically targeted cells for either therapeutic or diagnostic purposes. Effective cancer radiopharmaceuticals require tumor-specific targets not found in healthy tissue. MD Anderson researchers have established novel platforms to discover and validate tumor specific antigens, offering promising candidates for the development of new radiopharmaceuticals.

The first potential therapeutic candidate is a humanized immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody against the tumor-specific antigen B7-H3, also known as CD276, which is highly expressed in several common tumors but not in healthy cells. The antibody was developed in the laboratory of David Piwnica-Worms, M.D., Ph.D., 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.