UK biotech commits to scale up of 228Th extraction and a long-term supply agreement to facilitate production of thousands of doses of 212Pb for cancer therapies annually.
Bicycle Therapeutics has signed a 15-year supply agreement with the UK Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) that will provide it with access to an industrial quantity of reprocessed uranium from nuclear reactors.
This will allow the UK biotech to produce tens of thousands of doses of precision therapies for some of the hardest-to-treat cancers.
The agreement covers up to 400 tonnes of reprocessed uranium. Additionally, Bicycle is partnering with the United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL) to scale extraction of Thorium-228 (228Th), the precursor of lead-212, from the reprocessed uranium for further processing to generate the radioisotope 212Pb.
Extracting the isotope lead-212 from reprocessed uranium using a novel radioisotope generator could in turn provide a sustainable supply of 212Pb for use as a targeted alpha therapy (TAT) for certain cancers such as prostate cancer.
Mike Hannay, Chief Product and Supply Chain Officer of Bicycle Therapeutics, said: “We believe we now have the resources and infrastructure we need to create the world’s first end-to-end 212Pb radiopharmaceutical ecosystem from discovery through development to commercial supply.”
We believe [Bicycle Therapeutics] now have the resources and infrastructure we need to create the world’s first end-to-end 212Pb radiopharmaceutical ecosystem from discovery through development to commercial supply"
Overall, both agreements will support potential discovery, development and commercial supply of a portfolio of Bicycle® Radioconjugates (BRC) containing 212Pb.
Bicycle Therapeutics’ CEO Kevin Lee, PhD said: “As we continue to advance our emerging BRC pipeline, currently with novel targets EphA2 and MT1-MMP, we look forward to presenting initial EphA2 human imaging data in the first half of 2026 and initiating our own Bicycle study in 2026.”
In February 2024, Orano Med began construction on Europe’s first industrial-scale facility dedicated to the production of lead-212 based TAT radioligand therapies. Like Bicycle, Orano has committed to boosting its capabilities to produce industrial quantities of 228Th. The company aimed to manufacture 10,000 doses for lead-212 based radioligand therapies by 2025, produced at its ATLab Valenciennes in France.
