Lantheus goes Evergreen

Lantheus has been busy striking deals, and on Tuesday it signed another, buying Evergreen Theragnostics for $250m up front. The primary draw for the acquisition appears to be Evergreen’s manufacturing infrastructure; the group also has a registrational-stage diagnostic agent, Octevy. This asset could complement PNT2003, the generic version of Novartis’s Lutathera that Lantheus is developing under a 2022 deal with Point Biopharma (Point was acquired by Lilly in 2023). In addition, Evergreen has a pipeline of early-stage therapeutics, which it’s developing alongside paired diagnostics. The latest deal adds to Lantheus’s $350m purchase of Life Molecular Imaging earlier this month; that primarily concerned an Alzheimer’s imaging agent, but Lantheus had already acquired global rights to Life’s GRPR-targeting radiotherapeutic and radiodiagnostic for $35m up front last June. Also in 2024, Lantheus bought rights to two preclinical projects from Australia’s Radiopharm Theranostics for $2m, and gained an option on Perspective Therapeutics’ SSTR2-targeting 212Pb-VMT-α-NET for $28m. 212Pb-VMT-α-NET uses lead-212, a radioisotope said to be an alpha emitter that primarily undergoes beta decay; the project disappointed in an early trial in neuroendocrine tumours in November. Lantheus closed down 7% on Tuesday.  Lantheus & Evergreen: combined therapeutic pipelinesProjectOriginatorTargetIsotopeSettingNotePNT2003 (generic Lutathera)Lantheus*SSTRLutetium-177GEP-NETsFiling accepted by FDA Jan 2024PNT2002Lantheus*PSMALutetium-177mCRPCPh3 Splash disappointed on OS Dec 2023LNTH-2402 (177Lu-DOTA-RM2)Lantheus**GRPRLutetium-177mCRPCPh1/2 trial to start in 2025LNTH-2403Lantheus^LRRC15Terbium-161Solid tumoursPreclinicalLNTH-2404Lantheus^TROP2Actinium-225Solid tumoursPreclinical177Lu-EVG321EvergreenCCK2RLutetium-177SCLCPreclinicalEVG-311EvergreenUndisclosedLutetium-177GlioblastomaPreclinicalEVG-332EvergreenUndisclosedLutetium-177Pancreatic cancerPreclinicalEVG-341EvergreenUndisclosedLutetium-177Lobular breast cancerPreclinicalNote: *collaboration with Point Biopharma (now part of Lilly); **via Life Molecular Imaging; ^via Radiopharm Theranostics; CRPC=castration-resistant prostate cancer; GEP-NETs=gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours; SCLC=small-cell lung cancer; Source: OncologyPipeline & company presentations.