Lantheus Announces Agreement to Acquire Evergreen Theragnostics

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Lantheus Holdings, of Bedford, Mass., is acquiring the clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical contact development and manufacturing organization, Evergreen Theragnostics, Lantheus said in a press release on Jan. 28, 2025 (1). According to the release, Lantheus will pay $250 million up front in the all-cash purchase, but potential milestone payments, up to $752.5 million additionally, may be made in the future.

Lantheus said that adding Evergreen’s scalable manufacturing capabilities and infrastructure will allow Lantheus to meet the complex demands of radiopharmaceutical development and production (1). OCTEVY, a registrational-stage positron emission tomography agent for neuroendocrine tumors that Lantheus believes will complement its own therapeutic candidate PNT2003, is included in the purchase, along with certain other clinical and preclinical diagnostic pairs (1).

Executives on both sides of the transaction provided reaction and expressed optimism for the future.

“As Lantheus continues to advance its industry leadership, this transaction, along with the agreement to acquire Life Molecular Imaging, enhances our operations across the radiopharmaceutical value chain,” said Brian Markison, CEO of Lantheus, in his company’s press release. “With Evergreen’s manufacturing and development capabilities, we become fully integrated and will ultimately make a difference in the lives of more patients. We are pleased to welcome Evergreen’s talented team to Lantheus and are confident that their expertise in radiopharmaceutical theranostics and culture focused on developing new solutions for cancer patients will enrich our organization.”

As Markison referenced, in June 2024, Lantheus acquired an RM2—a small peptide that binds with high affinity to the the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor—originally developed by Bayer but licensed at the time to Life Molecular Imaging, for an upfront price of $35 million (2). That acquisition included Life Molecular’s novel, clinical-stage radiotherapeutic and radiodiagnostic pair ¹⁷⁷Lu-DOTA-RM2 and ⁶⁸Ga-DOTA-RM2, for the former of which a Phase I/IIa study in prostate cancer patients is beginning in 2025, with the latter used as a companion diagnostic.

Evergreen is headquartered in Springfield, NJ; its manufacturing facility there was constructed in 2020 (3).

“Today marks an exciting new chapter for Evergreen as we look to join the Lantheus team,” said Evergreen CEO James Cook, in the Lantheus press release. “Lantheus’ industry expertise and financial strength will help us bring our innovations to a broad patient population faster and support our mission to improve options for cancer patients through theranostic radiopharmaceuticals. We look forward to benefiting from Lantheus’ experience and resources to further advance our pipeline and continue developing cutting-edge therapies and diagnostics that have the potential to transform patient care. I am very pleased to have our Evergreen team join another industry-leading company with a shared vision.”

References

1. Lantheus. Lantheus to Acquire Evergreen Theragnostics for Upfront Payment of $250 Million to Drive Strategic Evolution into Fully Integrated Radiopharmaceutical Leader. Press Release. Jan. 28, 2025.
2. Lantheus. Lantheus Acquires Global Rights to Life Molecular Imaging’s Novel Therapeutic and Diagnostic Pair Targeting GRPR for Prostate and Breast Cancers. Press Release. June 27, 2024.
3. Evergreen Theragnostics. Evergreen Theragnostics Begins Construction of New Manufacturing Facility. Press Release. Sept. 23, 2020.