Bayer, looking to bolster its position in both imaging and cardiac medicine, struck a deal to snap up two experimental imaging agents and thereby enter the diagnostic tracers development space.
The deal, financial details of which were not shared, sees the German pharma buy AT-01 and AT-05 from Florida-based Attralus.
AT-01, a PET tracer, is currently in phase 3 testing and is the first pan-amyloid imaging agent to secure an FDA breakthrough tag for cardiac amyloidosis, according to a Jan. 12 press release. AT-05, a SPECT tracer, is in phase 1 testing.
Both agents are designed to assist in the diagnosis of cardiac and other types of systemic amyloidosis, according to the release.
Cardiac amyloidosis is a rare condition in which amyloid protein deposits build up in the heart. Currently, diagnosis of the condition can take a long time given that patients present with heart failure, which is then treated, but the underlying amyloidosis can be missed.
Traditional diagnosis features blood tests, an echocardiogram, an electrocardiogram, a cardiac MRI scan and a scan (a special scan that uses a tracer to detect amyloid in the heart).
Glen Firestone, president of Attralus, explained in the release that “most patients continue to remain undiagnosed or are diagnosed too late in their disease progression.” The company’s pan-amyloid imaging agents, meanwhile, could “enable earlier diagnosis and treatment, leading to improved patient outcomes,” he said.
Bayer estimated the global market for radio-diagnostic tracers was worth about $3 billion in 2024, but that it’s “projected to grow significantly in the coming years.”
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“This acquisition marks our entry into diagnostic tracers,” Nelson Ambrogio, president of radiology at Bayer, said in the release.
“Leveraging our expertise in medical imaging—including our pipeline and portfolio in advanced fluid delivery devices for nuclear medicine—it supports our ambition to expand in the growing field of molecular imaging,” Ambrogio added.
Bayer’s existing imaging offerings include contrast technology for CT and other scans, as well as cardiovascular injection systems such as Medrad Mark 7 Arterion, a single-head injection system for X-ray angiography.
