At a glance
Publicly launched: 2024
Headquarters: London
Technology: Small-molecule therapeutics and diagnostics containing radioactive halogen isotopes
Founders: Sofia dos Santos, Richard Edwards, Muhammet Tanҫ, and Tim Witney
Funding or notable partners: £5 million ($6.7 million) from Marathon Beteiligungs and additional investment from undisclosed partners
The Hercules pub is a special place for the founders of Nuclide Therapeutics (NTx). The watering hole on London’s South Bank is where cofounders Muhammet Tanҫ and Tim Witney went to celebrate when they knew they had a special molecule on their hands. They had found a way to inhibit a cancer drug target that had eluded Witney’s lab at King’s College London for years. It’s also where the team headed last year when they shook hands on their first fundraising round. The team is using that money to set up its first clinical trial. If all goes well, the founders may toast having dosed their first patient before the end of the year.
NTx is developing anticancer radiopharmaceuticals—specifically theranostics, which are combination regimens that offer both a diagnostic and a therapeutic molecule aimed at the same target. First, the diagnostic molecule binds to cancer cells and emits positrons that enable doctors to image a tumor. Then, the therapeutic molecule delivers cell-killing radiation.