By Jacob Moscovitch & Columbia Missourian
• Jan 27, 2021
Credit Sara Shahriari/KBIA
MU has entered into an agreement with a pharmaceutical company called Advanced Accelerator Applications International to supply a key ingredient in cancer therapy.
The MU Research Reactor Center will provide material without radioactive contaminants for AAA to manufacture a new cancer therapy, according to an MU news release. This radioisotope, which is a type of unstable atom, will be implemented by AAA in new drugs.
MURR has an existing agreement to supply the radioisotope Lutetium-177 (Lu-177) to AAA, a Novartis company, for its drug Lutathera. The drug, which is used to treat tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas, seeks out cancer cells in a person’s body and delivers radioactive material to kill them.
Columbia Daily Tribune
Under a new agreement, the University of Missouri Research Reactor will supply a radioisotope that serves as a key ingredient in a cancer therapy.
The multi-year agreement is with Advanced Accelerator Applications International, a Novartis pharmaceutical manufacturing company.
Since 2017, the research reactor has produced the radioisotope Lutetium-177 for the company under the name Lutathera. It is used to treat some tumors of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas.
The new version of the radioisotope contains no trace of the long-lived isotope. That s a real benefit because hospitals won t have the same regulations for use, storage and disposal they have with the current version, said David Robertson, research reactor director.