[Ben Nathanson]

Thanks for reading the blog and for your comments!

The radiation Blue Earth mentions is only the radiation from a PET scan. Nothing’s added by the other payload. A ligand with two hot payloads would indeed expose patients to unnecessary radiation, so there are two ligands — one for PET, with the PET payload hot and the therapy payload cold, and one for therapy, with the therapy payload hot and the PET payload cold.

In honesty, Blue Earth probably doesn’t care about identical imaging/therapy coverage the way the Munich researchers may have. The company saw a way to acquire two valuable medical applications at once with nearly identical manufacturing requirements. I imagine they’ve modified the design to use a cheaper metal than lutetium as the cold payload. No evidence I know of shows identical coverage leading to better outcomes, so they couldn’t expect anyone to pay for it. On the other hand, if the evidence emerges, they’re poised to take advantage.

Thanks to Rick for pointing out the cost of incorporating lutetium when it isn’t needed for scans.

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