The Telix Pharmaceuticals Ltd (ASX: TLX) share price has dropped lower with the market on Wednesday.
In afternoon trade the pharmaceutical company's shares are down 1% to $1.61 despite the release of a positive announcement.
What did Telix announce?
This morning Telix announced that it has entered into a collaboration and technology licensing agreement with AusHealth.
The agreement will see the two parties work together on a novel Molecularly Targeted Radiation (MTR) platform called APOMAB.
According to the release, the APOMAB technology uses antibodies to deliver radiation to cancer cells that express the La/SSB protein. These are present on the surface of certain types of cancer cells.
The partnership will fund a first in-human clinical trial using APOMAB technology to evaluate targeted radiation delivery in cancer patients at the Royal Adelaide Hospital.
While APOMAB has the potential to be used for multiple cancer indications, lung and ovarian cancers will be the initial focus.
APOMAB has a significant market opportunity and could potentially make a real difference. In 2018 there were an estimated 12,741 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed in Australia and in 2019 it is estimated that over 1,000 Australian women will have died from ovarian cancer. These cancers still have five-year survival rates as low as 20%.
What next?
Telix and AusHealth will each invest $300,000 to fund the clinical proof of concept. After which, subject to successful clinical and commercial development of the technology, Telix will pay AusHealth approximately $30 million in future milestone and royalty payments.
Telix CEO Dr. Christian Behrenbruch said, "Targeted radiation has tremendous therapeutic efficacy in many different types of cancer. The APOMAB approach may enable the use of this treatment modality in several new cancer indications that are not currently covered by Telix's pipeline."
"We are co-investing with AusHealth to fast-track an initial clinical proof-of-concept to assess the clinical potential, as well as to understand how this technology may be used in conjunction with other radiochemistry technologies currently under development by Telix. We have a very high regard for Prof. Brown and his team and are pleased to be supporting him alongside AusHealth to bring APOMAB to the clinic," he added.
