Funding supports the construction of a production facility in Medical Valley Forchheim and initial clinical feasibility studies
Targeted radionuclide therapy is an important new component in the treatment of a number of serious cancers and has the potential to offer a large number of patients better diagnosis and treatment. For this to be possible, the ideal framework conditions must be created. The Upper Franconia Foundation has pledged funding totalling €400,000 to a project team consisting of LinaThera GmbH, Nuclidium AG, Medical Valley Center Forchheim, Bayreuth Hospital and Erlangen University Hospital. The joint project application had a total volume of around €800,000 and is scheduled to run for two years. Of the total volume, the Upper Franconia Foundation will cover 50 % of the estimated costs and the other 50 % will be covered by the partners' own funds. An important milestone in the overall concept is the planned feasibility study. The study is intended to show what possibilities and opportunities the region will experience through a production facility and the strengthening of nuclear medicine and what measures need to be taken in the next few years in order to realise the major "Cancer Therapy Centre" project and allow it to spread to Upper Franconia and Bavaria. The background to this is the establishment of LinaThera in the district of Forchheim, where a production facility for radionuclides, which are urgently needed as raw materials for cancer therapy, is being built. "Our facility makes radioligand therapy accessible.
In this way, we are helping to achieve the European goal of being less internationally dependent in the care of cancer patients," says Managing Director of LinaThera, Dr Christoph Thiel. With the involvement of regional decision-makers, medical care and industry, the aim is to derive the necessary recommendations for the implementation of this major project. This offers the opportunity to position Upper Franconia and the Free State of Bavaria as pioneers in radioligand therapy and to establish a new business-orientated value chain in the region. Nuclidium AG is also a key part of the project. The Munich-based biotech company develops innovative, targeted radioligand therapies based on copper nuclides, which are comparatively easy to produce and break down into stable, endogenous elements after therapy. The company's product candidates are already being investigated in a number of difficult-to-treat cancer indications. "Radioligand therapy has the potential to revolutionise cancer medicine, and with specialised therapy centres we can significantly improve patient care," says Dr Leila Jaafar-Thiel, CEO of Nuclidium AG. "Our goal is to make our innovative copper-based radionuclide diagnostics and therapies available to a broad patient population in order to significantly improve their treatment." The approved project is based on successful partnerships and networking activities, which will strengthen transdisciplinary collaboration between the public sector, industry and science. In the long term, this will help to create future-orientated and innovative jobs in the region. "We would like to thank the Oberfrankenstiftung and the Board of Trustees for this great support and in particular Dr Ulich Schürr, a member of the Board of Trustees, for his personal commitment. With the additional focus on nuclear medicine, the Medical Valley Center Forchheim is further expanding its strong position as an innovation and start-up centre in the region. We want to continue to utilise this positive development to further develop and expand the region economically with our partners," says Viktor Naumann, Managing Director of Medical Valley Forchheim GmbH.
