Melbourne-headquartered Telix Pharmaceuticals has expanded its United States presence with the acquisition of $73 million in proprietary technology and a research facility from Californian BioTech firm ImaginAb.
Telix announced on Monday announced it was acquiring intellectual property for a pipeline of early-stage drug candidates that can target cancer cells and a facility in California staffed by a “team of discovery, protein engineering and radiopharmaceutical development experts”.
The company had previously been a part of a consortium to build a commercial-scale precision manufacturing facility through support from the Coalition government’s Modern Manufacturing Initiative (MMI), but the grant commitment was withdrawn by the Albanese government in 2023.
The technology acquired by Telix could be used for imaging and treating tumors “with a broad range of radioisotopes, with alpha [radiation] emitters of particular interest”.
The research facility will enable pre-clinical imaging and therapy studies to be done in-house features a bioreactor suited for engineered antibody production and advanced testing.
The chief executive of Telix’s therapeutics business Richard Valeix said the acquisition of a proprietary drug discovery platform, pipeline of cancer drugs, and subject matter experts would enhance the company’s “research and innovation capability now and into the future”.
“This acquisition will enable Telix to explore new disease areas with state-of-the-art radiotherapeutic technology,” Mr Valeix said.
The US$45 million (AU$73 million) deal consists of A$16.1 million in cash, A$50 million in equity and a 15-month deferred payment equity payment of A$6.5 million.
Future payments of up to US$185 million (A$299 million) will be made at the achievement of specific development and commercial milestones.
Telix Pharmaceuticals, which also has facilities in the US, Europe, and Japan, was previously expected to receive a A$23 million grant under the MMI collaboration stream for the Australian Precision Medicine Enterprise (APME) Project being delivered with Global Medicine Solutions’ Australian subsidiary and Monash University.
The project would’ve delivered a high energy cyclotron — a type of particle accelerator — to produce radioactive materials key to the development and manufacturing of precision medicines.
The federal government confirmed that the MMI grant for the APME project was withdrawn in July 2023. It was among eight MMI grant proposals to miss out on funding.
Monash University continues to independently pursue a research-scale cyclotron instead of the larger commercial facility initially proposed.
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