Theragnostics Announce Global Partnership With GE Healthcare

We are glad to announce that our client biotech company Theragnostics, who are developing innovative radiopharmaceuticals to improve cancer diagnosis and treatment, have entered into a global commercial partnership with GE Healthcare.

The partnership involves Theragnostics’ GalliProst, a PET/CT imaging agent for Prostate-Specific Membrane Antigen. During phase II clinical studies, GalliProst helped modify treatment plan for a third of newly-diagnosed prostate cancer patients. The proportion rose over 50% for patients with biochemically recurrent disease and to 75% in a post-radical radiotherapy setting.

While Theragnostics will lead the development of the tracer, GE Healthcare will lead all pre-approval commercial preparations and as and when approval is received, all subsequent commercial and distribution activities.

Today, prostate cancer is the fourth largest cancer type accounting for just over 1.2 million new cases and over 350,000 fatalities around the globe in 2018. The diagnostic workflow for detecting prostate cancer starts through a blood test or biopsy, after which patients are typically referred for PET/CT imaging so that radiologists can see their tumour, lymph nodes and any metastasis in order to decide the appropriate course of treatment. The ‘heatmap’ style image enabled by the new tracer shows the precise location and intensity of PSMA, which is expressed on the surface of prostate cancer cells.

“We are excited to partner with Theragnostics on GalliProst to give vital insights into prostate cancer,” said Sanka Thiru, Global Product Leader, Molecular Imaging Oncology in GE Healthcare’s Pharmaceutical Diagnostics business. “We believe that this partnership enables both parties to leverage each other’s key areas of expertise in order to accelerate the development of GalliProst and ultimately improve patient care.”

Greg Mullen, CEO of Theragnostics added: “This agreement is validation of the potential for our novel prostate cancer Gallium-68 (68Ga) diagnostic tracer, GalliProst which can benefit the treatment of prostate cancer patients around the globe. We are very pleased to sign our second agreement with GE Healthcare following our agreement last year for a diagnostic tracer for imaging kidney function and scarring.”