January 29, 2021 — Fuzionaire Radioisotope Technologies K.K. (“FRIT”) announced that it has entered into a feasibility study agreement with Nihon Medi-Physics Co., Ltd. (“NMP”), a leading radiopharmaceutical company in Japan, engaged in R&D, manufacturing, and distribution.
Founded in 2019, FRIT is a joint venture between radiopharmaceutical companies Fuzionaire Diagnostics, Inc. (“Fuzionaire Dx”) and Japan Medical Isotope Technology Development K.K. to develop and commercialize Fuzionaire Dx’s radiopharmaceutical technologies in Japan. Founded in 1973, NMP is a joint venture between Sumitomo Chemical Company, Limited and GE Healthcare.
Under the agreement, NMP will evaluate the ability of Fuzionaire Dx’s technology to create a new class of positron emission tomography (PET) radiopharmaceuticals. Fuzionaire Dx’s fluorine-18 radiolabeling platform, powered by a breakthrough in fundamental chemistry out of Nobel Prize winner Robert H. Grubbs’ laboratory at Caltech, allows the incorporation of fluorine-18 into a broad range of ligands at record-breaking speed.
One of FRIT’s priorities is to apply this fluorine-18 platform to create new radiopharmaceuticals that enable the prediction and measurement of patient responses to cancer immunotherapy treatments. In recent years, there have been extraordinary advances in treatments that help patients’ immune systems fight cancer. However, accurate, optimized patient stratification and selection remains a critical barrier to effective application and development of immunotherapies. Due to the unique capabilities of positron emission tomography – specific, quantitative, real-time, and high-resolution imaging of markers of immunological response – new PET radiopharmaceuticals have the potential to remove that barrier.
For more information: www.nmp.co.jp/