AAA 'keeps breaking new ground to deliver radioligand therapies'

Bringing a cancer treatment to patients that involves breakthrough technology and an enlightened approach from regulators, health technology assessment (HTA) agencies, health systems and their staff is only achievable by a highly innovative and hands-on company.

Advanced Accelerator Applications (AAA), now part of Novartis (NOVN: VX), has displayed these qualities in abundance in rolling out its first radioligand therapy (RLT) Lutathera (lutetium Lu 177 dotatate) across the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), even when coronavirus posed entirely unforeseen challenges.

RLT combines a targeting compound, or ligand, with a therapeutic radioactive particle, or radioisotope. The ligand acts as a targeting compound that binds to certain markers or receptors expressed by specific types of cancer cells. The radioisotope, meanwhile, emits a type of radiation that can cause damage to the target cell.