Telix Pharmaceuticals opens combined manufacturing and treatment facility

Melbourne-based Telix Pharmaceuticals opened a multi-million dollar radiopharmaceutical research, manufacturing and treatment facility in Melbourne last week, which it says will expand and strengthen Australia’s capability in one of the world’s fastest-growing areas of cancer diagnosis and treatment.

Telix Manufacturing Solutions North Melbourne (TMSNM) is a purpose-built site that combines radiochemistry laboratories, clinical product manufacturing, patient dose administration and imaging at a single location. The facility aims to help address manufacturing capacity constraints and the need to make and administer radiopharmaceutical doses in close proximity to patients. It will link research, clinical trials and treatment, and is intended to significantly reduce the timeframe from early-stage trials to broad patient access.

Patient care and research at the site will be delivered by the Melbourne Theranostic Innovation Centre (MTIC), overseen by nuclear medicine clinician-researcher Professor Rod Hicks. The Telix and MTIC clinical research collaboration covers Telix-sponsored studies, investigator-initiated trials and select third party collaborations.

“Radiopharmaceuticals are fast becoming an important part of cancer care, but manufacturing capacity for novel treatments, which needs to be near patients, remains a constraint in Australia,” said Dr Christian Behrenbruch, Telix Managing Director and Group CEO. “This facility will allow us to move new treatments from research into the clinic and patient use more efficiently. It is also an investment in Australia’s sovereign manufacturing capability and the specialist workforce needed to build a globally competitive radiopharmaceutical industry.”

“Bringing these capabilities together will give clinicians faster access to novel radiopharmaceuticals and allow emerging technologies to be assessed in a real-world clinical setting,” Hicks said. “It will help us select patients more precisely, measure treatment response and generate evidence more quickly, as we evaluate new targets and next generation isotopes and treatment approaches.”

Radiopharmaceuticals that can reveal the location of tumours on scans and deliver therapeutic radiation directly to cancer cells are rapidly emerging as the ‘sixth pillar’ of cancer care, alongside surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, targeted therapy and immunotherapy.

TMSNM will also support training in nuclear medicine, radiochemistry, engineering and clinical research, helping develop the specialist workforce required by Australia's health and life sciences sector.

Telix is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia, with operations across North America, Europe, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.

Image credit: iStock.com/Vladislav Stepanov