Science and Tech

New generation of radioactive drugs fights cancer with molecular precision

Cancer

What if it existed a less invasive drug that, by traveling through the bloodstream, would directly attack the patient’s cancerous tumor? Without pain, without so many adverse effects and with greater effectiveness.

It is a possibility that seems remote but, little by little, It is made possible by radiopharmaceuticals. Currently, very few sessions of this type of therapy are commercially available to patients. The focus is on specific forms of prostate cancer and tumors originating in the hormone-producing cells of the pancreas and gastrointestinal tract.

However, everything indicates that little by little, radiopharmaceuticals are closer to being accessible thanks to the investment of different companies. AstraZeneca became the latest company to join the field by completing its purchase of Fusion Pharmaceuticals, a maker of next-generation radiopharmaceuticals, in a deal estimated to be worth $2.4 billion.

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The AstraZeneca purchase follows similar transactions worth more than $1 billion in recent months by Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS), Eli Lilly and Novartis.

Experts have succeeded in obtaining a new molecule using a system that facilitates its industrial application to manufacture drugs against cancer.

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“There is a lot of potential here,” analyst David Nierengarten, who covers radiopharmaceuticals for Wedbush Securities in San Francisco, told El País. But he adds that “there is still a lot of room for improvement.” And while the outlook is encouraging, Victory cannot yet be declared: despite the funding of projects and production, evidence has shown that this treatment would not work on all types of tumors.

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