PanTera to supply Ac-225 to Bayer
PanTera, a Belgian joint venture created by Ion Beam Applications (IBA) and SCK CEN, has signed a capacity reservation agreement with pharmaceutical giant Bayer for the supply of actinium-225 starting in the second half of 2024. An alpha-emitting radioisotope with a half-life of 10 days, Ac-225 has shown potential for treating various types of cancer through targeted alpha therapy.
According to PanTera, this first agreement with a major drug developer, announced on February 13, reflects the company’s unique position to be a reliable, European Union–based supplier of Ac-225. PanTera added that it will continue to work this year on increasing access to Ac-225 for clinical trial needs, as well as on the development of a large-scale, state-of-the-art production facility to address growing global demand.
He said it: Sven Van den Berghe, chief executive officer of PanTera, said, “PanTera’s emerging ability to start supplying Ac-225 this year will allow research and clinical trials in this domain to advance. The combined expertise and technology from SCK CEN and IBA places PanTera in a unique position to become the go-to global supplier of Ac-225 for [pre-]clinical trials and commercial use.”
Other collaborations: In June of last year, PanTera entered into a strategic collaboration agreement with Washington state’s TerraPower Isotopes to increase the availability of Ac-225.
Through that collaboration, the companies were to use both TerraPower Isotopes’ process of extracting Ac-225 through a natural decay method from thorium-229 and PanTera’s use of Rhodotron accelerators and radium-226 to produce Ac-225.