3 hours Ago By Robert Barrie
Australia-based radiopharmaceutical company Telix Pharmaceuticals has created a new radionuclide generator that could facilitate the commercial supply of lead-212 isotope-based therapies. The company said it has developed and validated the technology, as well as completed the first production of the radioactive isotope. Shares in the company, listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), opened 1.
3% higher following the announcement that was made before trading commenced. Telix has a market cap of $5.66bn.
Lead-212 is a promising radioactive isotope for use in targeted alpha therapy, an alternative modality to beta-particle-based therapies that has shown efficacy in treating certain types of cancer. The alpha-emitting isotope can be produced through the decay of thorium-228 in a generator. Generators are a type of nuclear battery that produces daughter radionuclides through the loss of energy by a parent radionuclide.
Although lead-212 can be made in small levels at the bench in a laboratory, current generator approaches have found it difficult to produce the nuclear species at a large scale. Along with commercial scale hurdles, lead-212 also has a shorter half-life compared to the widely used alpha-emitter actinium-225 – 10.6 hours versus nearly ten days respectively.
Developed internally by its IsoTherapeutics team and using a sealed thorium-228 source, Telix claims its lead-212 production occurs with a higher amount of radioactivity, yield, and shelf life compared to available generators. Telix states its automated and high-throughput generator can produce sufficient lead-212 elution for up to 60 clinical doses, adding there is the “potential to further scale”. Elution refers to the process of extracting the radioactive daughter nuclide.
The company has not disclosed the dimensions of the generator, saying only that the production footprint has been designed to be deployed throughout its manufacturing and distribution networks. Its commercial channels were bolstered recently with the $250m acquisition of RLS Radiopharmacies in September 2024. With the business bolt-on, Telix gained access to 31 radiopharmacies spread across 18 US states.
Telix’s isotope strategy general manager Chad Watkins said: “A lead-212 generator that produces minimal waste and fits within the current radiopharmacy footprint is a step change in the production of this alpha emitting therapeutic radioisotope. “It creates the potential for commercial scale lead-212 isotope production that wasn’t possible before and opens up new pathways for matching this promising alpha isotope with a range of targeting agents.” The United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL) has pointed to the promise of lead-212 for cancer therapies whilst also highlighting its supply hurdles.
In partnership with Medicines Discovery Catapult, the agency is using government funding to reprocess uranium waste from power plants into usable lead-212 medical isotopes. “Other countries are already researching and developing these treatments, but the UK does not yet have a sustainable pipeline of radiopharmaceuticals to secure access for UK patients,” the UKNNL said in a statement. According to the lab, the long-term aim is to make the material available to researchers and drug developers, eventually enabling commercial production and routine use within the NHS.
The appetite for lead-212-based therapies is evident. AdvanCell, whose lead candidate uses the isotope, in funding last month. RadioMedix and Orano Med’s AlphaMedix, another , was the subject of a $110m by Sanofi in September 2024.
Telix itself raised to advance its pipeline of diagnostic imaging agents and cancer therapy programmes. Whilst big deals continue to be made in the space, including billion-dollar deals made by Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca last year, supply chains are as isotope producers struggle to upscale capacity. Actinium-225, for example, has been in a global shortage for much of the radiopharmaceutical market’s existence.
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