Sofie saddles $1.5M SBIR grant for phase II PET probes

Sofie Biosciences, producers of PET imaging systems and agents, has been awarded a two-year $1.5 million phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract from the National Cancer Institute to further develop oncologic PET agents, the company recently announced.

The grant will go toward the developments of agents like F-18 FAC (fluoro-b-D-arabinofuranosylcytosine) that gauges the enzyme deoxycytidine kinase, or dCK, which moderates production of DNA. Many cancer therapies use this enzyme to inhibit DNA replication in aggressive cancers. F-18 FAC could potentially be used to select patients who might respond better to such treatments.

With this grant, Sofie plans to standardize a modern system of production based on three-reactor radiochemistry, which will be used for automated manufacturing of PET agents. The technology is being called Elixys.

"Sofie believes that Elixys is the cornerstone in the development of a network of radiochemistry systems that seamlessly connect investigators across the U.S. with the means to produce F-18 FAC for clinical trials,” said Patrick Phelps, Sofie president and CEO, in a press release. “We imagine F-18 FAC as just the first in a line of extraordinary new PET probes that answer important questions about the biology of disease or to select the right therapy, and the Elixys network as the conduit to these probes becoming widely used."