September 1, 2024: Collagen Medical, dba Lumina Pharmaceuticals, announced that the company has been awarded a $2 million Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II Fast Track grant from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), a member of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). This award will focus on the development of an image-guided therapy paradigm for improving the management of gastric cancer by targeting fibrin in the tumor microenvironment. This SBIR grant follows numerous earlier NIH grants awarded to Lumina.
“The Fast Track award from NCI represents another important milestone for Lumina as we continue to advance our platform of targeted molecular probes for medical imaging and radioligand therapy,” said co-founder Dr. Gregory Sorensen. “This award will enable Lumina to further optimize our lead theranostic pair and acquire additional early clinical imaging data to inform our development plan.”
Gastric cancer ranks as the fifth most prevalent malignancy and is the third leading cause of cancer-related mortality globally. Despite advancements in the management of advanced gastric cancer, prognosis remains unfavorable, with median survival limited to 12–14 months even with combination chemotherapy.
Lumina’s theranostic strategy holds the potential to significantly enhance the quality of patient care in solid tumor cancers with high unmet need such as gastric cancer. The approach combines the use of a diagnostic imaging agent for patient selection with a precision medicine of targeted radioligand therapy.
This grant is provided by the National Cancer Institute under Award Number R44CA275590. The content of this release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.