NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC, and Convergent Therapeutics Inc., have signed a long-term agreement where NorthStar will supply the therapeutic medical radioisotope actinimum-225 (Ac-225) to the radiopharmaceutical company.
Convergent will use NorthStar’s Ac-225 to radiolabel its lead asset, CONV01-α, a prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-targeted monoclonal antibody, currently being investigated as a potential ground-breaking treatment for prostate cancer.
Ac-225 is a high energy alpha-emitting radioisotope of increasing interest for clinical studies investigating the use of targeted radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT), which combines select molecules with therapeutic radioisotopes, such as Ac-225, to directly target and deliver therapeutic doses of radiation to destroy cancer cells in patients with serious disease. Ac-225 carries sufficient radiation to cause cell death in a localized area of targeted cells, while its half-life limits unwanted radioactivity in patients. Clinical research and commercial use of Ac-225 are severely constrained by chronic short supply due to limitations of current production technology. NorthStar is positioned to be the first commercial-scale producer of Ac-225 for advancing clinical research and commercial radiopharmaceutical products. NorthStar will use its electron accelerator technology to produce n.c.a. Ac-225 that is free of long-lived radioactive contaminants and byproducts associated with other production methods, which pose regulatory and waste management challenges for hospitals and health systems.
