June 13, 2012 — Navidea Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company focused on precision diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, presented clinical data comparing its amyloid imaging candidate, AZD4694, to the benchmark amyloid imaging agent, 11C-PIB, at the Society of Nuclear Medicine Annual Meeting in Miami, Fla.
Professor Christopher Rowe, M.D., FRACP, Director of the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Centre for PET at Austin Health, Melbourne, Australia, presented a talk entitled “Comparison of 11C-PiB and18F-AZD4694 for A? imaging in aging and dementia” during the meeting session on “Quantifying Brain Amyloid Signal - Methods & Challenges.” The presentation highlighted results of a study examining imaging characteristics such as binding kinetics, standard uptake values ratios (SUVR), and non-specific white-matter retention for these agents obtained in the same subjects. Forty-five participants (25 healthy elderly controls, 10 with Mild Cognitive Impairment, seven with Alzheimer’s Disease and three with fronto-temporal dementia) underwent PET imaging with both 11C-PIB and AZD4694. The quantitative measures of 18F-AZD4694 binding to cortical amyloid plaques such as SUVR showed almost identical results to 11C-PIB and very tight performance correlation (r=0.98, p<0.0001; slope 0.95). Visually, images obtained in the same patient with the same scan times, the same data processing and the same display scales, were identical. 18F-AZD4694 had comparable binding kinetics and dynamic range of SUVR to the benchmark 11C-PiB as well as similar high values of cortex to white matter ratios.
“With this study we can demonstrate a direct comparison to the long-standing agent of choice, PIB,” commented Thom Tulip, Navidea’s Executive Vice President and Chief Business Officer. “We believe that this agent’s strong sensitivity, specificity and better contrast may enable earlier Alzheimer’s disease identification, better monitoring of disease progression and response to treatment over time, and easier scan interpretation in clinical practice.”
For more information: www.navidea.com