Syncona Ltd (LON:SYNC), a leading healthcare company focused on founding, building and funding global leaders in life science, is pleased to note that its portfolio company, Blue Earth Diagnostics (Blue Earth), has announced results from early clinical experience in an academic setting with its radiohybrid PSMA-targeted agent, rhPSMA-7 in high-risk primary and recurrent prostate cancer. Blue Earth acquired rhPSMA-7 in 2018 to extend its leading position in prostate cancer imaging, including potential new areas of high unmet need, such as early stage primary prostate cancer patients.
The Technical University at Munich (TUM) has utilised the agent in early clinical experience[1] in men with both primary and recurrent cancer. These retrospective analyses were presented at the Annual Urological Association’s 2019 Annual meeting:
· A retrospective analysis of 58 patients with high risk primary prostate cancer indicated that 18F-rhPSMA-7 PET/CT demonstrated sensitivity of 72% (13/18), specificity of 93% (37/40) and diagnostic accuracy 86% (50/58), when compared to histopathological findings.
· A retrospective analysis of 261 patients with biochemically recurrent prostate cancer in which 18F-rhPSMA-7 PET/CT demonstrated a detection rate of 81% (211/261) at a median PSA level of 0.96 ng/mL
Blue Earth expects to launch its own phase I/II clinical trial in 2019 calendar year.
Martin Murphy, Chief Executive of Syncona Investment Management Limited, said: “We are encouraged by these results, which provide further evidence to support the potential clinical utility of rhPSMA-7 in both high-risk primary and recurrent prostate cancer. While Blue Earth will next look to test this hypothesis in its own clinical trial, this data reinforces our belief that this PSMA agent is one of the leading assets in the space and should enable Blue Earth to extend its leading position in prostate cancer diagnostics.”
Blue Earth Chief Executive, Jonathan Allis, said: “We are very pleased that TUM is able to share the results of this initial clinical experience with the prestigious urology community at AUA 2019. Blue Earth Diagnostics acquired rhPSMA-7 last year as part of our mission to develop and commercialize innovative PET imaging agents for cancer. rhPSMA-7 is a strategic expansion of our technologically advanced imaging portfolio, and a complement to approved, commercially available Axumin.”
Syncona has an 89.0 per cent stake in the business with a holding value of £229.6 million.
