Radiopharm Theranostics (RAD: $0.16) has in-licensed an additional targeting agent from Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in the US.

The peptide licensed targets a fragment of a receptor found only on tumour cells and not in healthy tissue, called PTPµ. The peptide has been found, in preclinical studies, to recognise not only the main tumour but also small tumour metastases.

CEO of Radiopharm Theranostics (RAD: $0.185), Riccardo Canevari, believes that the next big platform in oncology, following immunotherapy and cell therapies, will be radiopharmaceuticals.

Canevari highlighted the said the approval of Lutathera (in 2018) from Novartis (where Canevari was working at the time), for the treatment of neuroendocrine tumours and the more recent approval this year of Pluvicto (also from Novartis) as key events for the sector. Lutathera achieved a stunning efficacy result in its pivotal trial achieving a hazard ratio of 0.21, meaning a 79% risk reductio of disease progression or death. For Pluvicto, reaching primary and secondary endpoints in prostate cancer was a game changer.

Another nuclear imaging and therapy company, Radiopharm Theranostics (RAD: $0.245), listed on the ASX in November last year raising $50 million at $0.60 per share.

Radiopharm has four imaging studies underway withy three therapeutic trials and an additional imaging study expected to commence by year's end. At a briefing this week, CEO Riccardo Canevari said that he expected the radiopharmaceutical market to grow very fast after the recent approval of Pluvicto, with other pharmaceutical companies waiting to enter the radiopharmaceutical sector. The three major pharmaceutical companies active in this sector are Novartis, Bayer and AstraZeneca.