ITM Isotopen Technologien München AG (ITM) has raised €20 million ($22 million) for clinical trials of its targeted radionuclide therapies. The round, which is the first ITM has publicized, comes 7 months after the radiopharmaceutical specialist in-licensed a potential therapy and diagnostic for bone metastases.
Garching, Germany-based ITM, a collective of privately held radiopharmaceutical companies, lists bone metastases alongside neuroendocrine, prostate and skin cancers on the tally of indications it is working to treat. Some of the programs are reportedly in clinical trials. However, ITM's website lacks a pipeline page and studies sponsored by the company appear nowhere on the various databases of clinical trials.
For its part, ITM is content to maintain its secrecy. "We don't give interviews right now," Nicola Scharrer, head of marketing at ITM, told FierceBiotech. "We would appreciate if you get back to us at a later point in time."
ITM, which was founded in 2004, has disclosed some details of its activities in press statements over the past year. As well as in-licensing the bone metastases product, DOTA-Zoledronate, ITM filed for approval of the radiopharmaceutical precursor EndolucinBeta in Europe last year. EndolucinBeta, the brand name for no-carrier-added Lutetium-177, is intended to be used to label carrier molecules for targeted radionuclide therapy, a more specific way of hitting cancers with toxic levels of radiation.
The investment will enable ITM to run clinical trials of its pipeline of targeted radionuclide therapies. Medtech Focused Family Office, an organization about which there is even less public information than there is regarding ITM, provided the cash. "We thank our new investor for its confidence in ITM's groundbreaking role in setting new global standards in precision oncology," ITM CEO Steffen Schuster said in a statement.
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