“BetaGlue brings together some of the world’s excellence in the field of cancer fighting, and their insight to combine existing and already active technologies in the market in an innovative way is simply formidable.”This month, we announced our investment in BetaGlue Technologies, a highly innovative life science company that we have already talked about in recent months and which has developed disruptive proprietary therapeutic and diagnostic technologies in the field of oncology.
The total financing round is EUR 10 million equity in which LIFTT participated with EUR 1 million. In addition to LIFTT, Fin Posillipo (Petrone Group), Kairos Partners SGR, Neva Sgr (Intesa Sanpaolo Group), Profequycapital and Romed will join the company’s capital, with Innogest Capital and Panakès Partners, already present in the company’s capital, reinvesting.
The investment will fund the future activities of BetaGlue Technologies, which has global ambitions to reach different milestones in Europe and the US for the development and registration of its advanced radiotherapy platform, BAT-90. Priorities for this development will be the completion of clinical trials already underway in the liver and breast cancer indications and their regulatory approval, as well as the completion of the industrial scale-up in Europe and the US of the safe biopsy device, already clinically tested in lung and liver biopsy.The completion of clinical trials already underway in the liver and breast cancer indications and their regulatory approval.
The BAT-90
The company has developed and patented an anti-tumour product called BAT-90 (‘Beta Ablation Therapy with Yttrium-90’), consisting of a biocompatible matrix that emits beta radiation, which can be administered to the patient by percutaneous injection or during surgery. The process involves the Yttrium-90-labelled microspheres within it being injected into the tumour or the margins of its surgical resection and, due to the rapid attainment of complete polymerisation of the containing matrix, being retained exclusively in the injection zone. Thanks to this, the microspheres do not spread to other organs or tissues and release their radiant energy only in the target tissue.
The BAT-90 technology originated at the National Tumour Institute ‘Fondazione Pascale’ in Naples, where the intra-arterial injection of radioactive microspheres in the treatment of liver cancer (so-called TARE) has been extended beyond this indication and route of administration. This is due to the use of a rapidly polymerising biocompatible glue that effectively retains the radioactive microspheres, allowing them to be injected directly and safely into various target tissues. The latter can be either surgically unresectable tumours or metastases, which are thus irradiated in-loc, or tumour resection margins, which may still have residual cancerous cells (the main cause of local recurrence) and which can be remediated thanks to BAT-90.
BAT-90 thus reveals important perspectives in the field of oncology, with advantages for both the patient and the healthcare system. It is, in fact, an extremely precise (it only affects the area affected by the tumour), customised (calibrated to the patient’s clinical needs), rapid (a single injection with polymerisation in just a few minutes) and safe (the radiant energy is released where it is needed, avoiding irradiation of neighbouring organs and tissues that could be a source of risk for the patient and healthcare workers).
The ‘Safe Biopsies’ Device
The Company has developed a further proprietary technology, which is in the process of being patented: it is a medical device that, thanks to the use of a biocompatible matrix, also used in BAT-90, allows safe biopsies in oncology, preventing even severe complications after lung or liver procedures. The device has been tested in a multicentre clinical trial in Italy on 40 patients undergoing diagnostic lung biopsy, showing a statistically significant reduction in the incidence of complications, including haemorrhage and pneumothorax, compared to the data in the literature, and consequently a significant reduction in the healthcare costs associated with their occurrence.A medical device that, thanks to the use of a biocompatible matrix, also used in BAT-90, allows safe biopsies in oncology.
Riccardo Palmisano, Executive Chairman and Antonino Amato, CEO/CMO of BetaGlue Technologies commented: “We enthusiastically welcome the entry of new qualified partners, which will allow us to accelerate BetaGlue’s development plans. With their contribution, we will be able to strengthen the pillars of value creation for the Company, such as clinical development and industrial scale-up of our innovative products. In this way, we are confident that we will be able to transfer the concept of precision medicine into radiotherapy for the benefit of patients and healthcare professionals, and at the same time strengthen the value for investors who have trusted us and our technology.”
“For LIFTT, this operation represents a great opportunity: BetaGlue brings together some of the world‘s excellence in the field of cancer fighting, and their intuition to combine existing technologies already on the market in an innovative way is simply formidable, also and above all in relation to the severity of the pathologies that represent their target and the related potential.” Giovanni Tesoriere, LIFTT’s CEO
