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Pharmaceutical manufacturers are hard at work developing “drugs that can target cancer like guided missiles,” according to The Wall Street Journal (subscription).

What’s going on: “Therapies known as antibody-drug conjugates, which help deliver chemotherapy directly to tumors, have gotten most of the attention and are farthest along: Pfizer’s $43 billion acquisition of biotech Seagen Inc. last year underscored how hot the field has become,” the newspaper reports. “More quietly, a concept known as radiopharmaceuticals is also gaining ground.”

• In radiopharmaceuticals, a patient is given a radioactive particle “bound with a molecule that can chase down tumor cells.”

Why it’s important: The technology, while still in its infancy, is gaining popularity with drug companies and venture capital firms and “could well become a key part of the fight against cancer in the next decade or so.”

Growing interest: The pharmaceutical industry began to take notice of it after Novartis “made a pair of multibillion-dollar acquisitions starting in 2017. Pluvicto, a therapy Novartis got in one of those acquisitions, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 2022 for a type of advanced prostate cancer.”

• And late last year Eli Lilly acquired radiopharmaceutical firm POINT Biopharma Global Inc.   

A hurdle: Radiopharma’s supply chain presents a challenge, however.

• “Radioactive isotopes are produced in special nuclear reactors or generators and then shipped to a production facility where they are linked to a cell-targeting compound. The product then needs to be tested and packaged before being shipped to clinics.”
• Because radioactive material decays in days, shipping speed is paramount.

Better outcomes: Radiopharmaceuticals and antibody-drug conjugates are part of a larger anti-cancer toolbox “that could be used in combination to improve patient outcomes,” according to the Journal.