The avidin biotin system has been described as nature’s gift to molecular biology

The avidin biotin system has been described
as nature’s gift to molecular biology

“High costs should be defrayed by more competition
and more centralised facilities to prepare reagents”

“When I started thework on glioblastoma therewas

a company that supplied the antibody for human

injection–youneeda lot of resources toprepare these

agents, and now we also have to comply with EuropeanGoodManufacturing

Practice regulation. But

my supplierwas soldto another company thatwasnot

interested in continuing production.” It is only

recently – after a gap of some 15 years – that he has

found another company to step in(SigmaTau, based

in Rome), such that he is now in the registration

process for the PAGRIT model for brain tumours

withEMEAalongwithaphase I/II trial.He adds that

there is – encouragingly –muchmore interest from

commercial quarters in agents for nuclearmedicine

generally, fromboth smaller biotech firms and larger

companies (one US commentator predicts a therapeuticmarket

worth $1.9 billion by 2012, fromjust

$71million in 2005).

Two radioimmunotherapies of note for non-

Hodgkin’s lymphoma are nowon themarket –Bexxar

(tositumomab and iodine-131 tositumomab) and

Zevalin (90-ibritumomab tiuxetan).Theyhit the spotlight

in theUS recently whenMedicare, the healthcare

programme for older people, baulked at the very

high reimbursement costs set by their makers – as

much as $30,000 (€20,600) for one treatment.

These treatments are nothing newtoPaganelli –

he has beenworkingwith non-commercial versions

of most nuclear agents for some time. Having prepared

90-ibritumomab tiuxetan himself at Milan,

Paganelli comments that the costs could certainly be

muchlower, and argues that thehighcosts should be

defrayed bymore competition among biotech firms

andmore centralised facilities to prepare reagents for

sharing among oncology centres.