Clarity Pharmaceuticals (ASX:CU6) has expanded its cancer treatment pipeline with the development of a novel radiopharmaceutical called ‘SAR-bisFAP’.

The new product is designed for both diagnostic and therapeutic purposes and could present a “pan-cancer opportunity.”

What’s in the name?

Radiopharmaceuticals combine two components: a radioactive isotope and a target molecule. Targeting molecules direct the isotope to specific sites in the body, such as cancer cells or tumors, and the isotope can be used for destruction or diagnosis (for example, as seen in a PET scan).

Isotopes decay over time, becoming non-radioactive and removed from the body.

The “SAR” in SAR-bisFAP refers to Clarity’s “specific activity radiopharmaceutical” platform that can efficiently couple copper isotopes (copper-64 for imaging and copper-67 for therapeutics) to target molecules.

“FAP” stands for “fibroblast activation protein.” This is a type of protein found on fibroblasts (a type of connective tissue cell) that are associated with cancer.

FAP is present in a wide range of cancers, including breast, colorectal, pancreatic, lung, brain, and ovarian cancers, but is typically absent from healthy tissue.

“Bis” refers to the fact that SAR-bisFAP has two binding sites. It can bind two FAP molecules at once, increasing the ability of SAR-bisFAP to bind and maintain binding. In Clarity’s preclinical studies, SAR-bisFAP demonstrated 8x greater retention and 4x higher uptake compared to industry standard compounds such as FAPI-46.

next step

The company is conducting additional research to enable Phase I clinical trials, which could begin in the second half of 2025.

Clarity’s development of SAR-bisFAP follows the success of its SAR-bisPSMA product in prostate cancer.

Clarity stock rose 16.49% to $5.37.