March 5, 2012 — SciFluor Life Sciences announced an agreement with Harvard University that extends its license of proprietary fluorine technology to the rapidly growing field of positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. Under the new agreement, SciFluor gains access to technology that enables the rapid, efficient synthesis of 18F-labeled molecules, which empower PET imaging for a new level of informed and predictive drug development. The company previously announced an exclusive, worldwide license from Harvard University to various fluorination methods and to a portfolio of novel fluorinated compounds.
“We are pleased to further expand the breadth of our innovative fluorine technologies and to extend our licensing agreement with Harvard,” said Arthur Hiller, CEO of SciFluor Life Sciences. “With this new technology, SciFluor is now capable of developing sophisticated 18F PET tracers that were previously inaccessible. This advance paves the way to significantly expand the capabilities of PET imaging in the drug discovery and development process by providing researchers with new insights into a drug candidate’s potential efficacy, safety and optimal dosing. Our initial focus will be on identifying industry partnerships between SciFluor and companies with drug pipelines and research priorities that benefit from applying this fluorination technology, which ultimately could result in shorter development times, improved clinical trial designs and more revolutionary therapies for patients.”
By utilizing SciFluor technology in PET imaging, researchers will now be able to observe a broader range of a drug’s cellular and metabolic activity in vivo to determine, for example, the drug’s capacity to cross the blood-brain barrier, its ability to hit the relevant biological targets, and the drug’s dose effectiveness and potential clinical benefit.
This newly licensed technology was recently described in the paper, “A Fluoride-Derived Electrophilic Late-Stage Fluorination Reagent for PET Imaging,” published in the Nov. 4, 2011, issue of Science and co-authored by Tobias Ritter, Ph.D., founder and chief technology officer of SciFluor.
For more information: www.scifluor.com
July 30, 2024 
