Cellectar and Orano Med Collaborate on New Program

When two companies collaborate on a common a goal in a collaboration agreement, the result is generally positive for all companies involved.

On Wednesday (August 1), Cellectar Bioscience (NASDAQ:CLRB) announced with privately-held Orano Med (previously Areva Med), the two will collaborate on a new phospholipid drug conjugate (PDC) program. This will focus on developing new drug conjugates using Orano’s alpha emitter, lead-212 (212Pb), conjugated to Cellectar’s phospholipid ether (PLE).

By each company bringing in its own proprietary technology, both could benefit generously if the collaboration releases a number of successful novel oncologic therapies.

“This collaboration is an ideal strategic fit and provides an excellent opportunity to expand our radiotherapeutic portfolio beyond CLR 131, a highly potent beta emitter, and establish one of the most complete oncology-focused radiotherapeutic portfolios,” James Caruso, Cellectar’s CEO said in the press release.

CLR 131 is the company’s small-molecule targeted phospholipid drug conjugate designed to deliver cytotoxic radiation directly and selectively to cancer cells.

Cellectar phospholipid ethers (PLEs) and PLE analogs have a broad application for targeted delivery of various molecules. Some include radioisotopes to malignant tumor cells with up to 30-fold more payload delivered to the tumor versus normal tissues.

The PLEs provide specific targeting to tumor cells, such as by binding to lipid raft regions within the tumor membrane instead of a single epitope/surface antigen. From there, they enter the tumor cell directly through its cytoplasm.

In the case of Orano, the company’s alpha emitter provides high energy delivery over a shorter distance than other radioisotopes, which is caused from non-repairable double stranded DNA breaks. This results in enhanced tumor targeting of construct, allowing the 212Pb better efficacy at lower doses with less side effects. Orano is a nuclear medicine biotech company working in oncology

Orano has teamed up with other companies, creating a broad pipeline—most of which are preclinical—with tumor targeting therapies, including: Roche (OTCQX:RHHBY), Nordic Nanovector (FRA:8NN) and Morphotek.

As the companies expect, and is exemplified with each respective company’s technology, the two believe the PLE conjugated to 212Pb could be an ideal drug candidate and provide improved anti-cancer effects superior to other delivery technologies.

As per the collaboration, the companies will equally share preclinical costs between the organizations with both parties having an option to advance and commercialize the PDC alone or in the collaboration, which will be available after early proof of concept data is given.

Investor takeaway

Over the trading day on Wednesday, Cellectar’s share price increased 1.88 percent to US$3.25 following the announcement.

Although there aren’t any dates set out for when the involved companies will begin the research and development for the PDC program, Cellectar also recently closed a US$16.56 million public offering. Investors can look forward to hearing more about the company’s new collaboration and how it may spend the offering.

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Securities Disclosure: I, Gabrielle Lakusta, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.