Great layman's summary
@Compounder50! Since you asked, a couple of points that are important to the Telix story:
6. Radioactive isotopes are not revolutionary to the cancer imaging and therapy world. What is revolutionary is that they are being
molecularly targeted to specific cancer types. Cancers tend to express proteins on the surface of their cells that are not present on normal healthy cells and are different between different types of cancer (in the case of prostate cancer this protein is called PSMA). Telix takes the radioactive isotopes and connects them to molecules that specifically target and bind to these abnormally expressed proteins in a lock and key fashion. So, in layman's terms, instead of radiation being used like carpet bombing it is now being used like a laser-guided missile.
25. The main difference between the therapy asset TLX591 and Illuccix (TLX591-CDx) is the radioisotope that is attached. TLX591 has a "stronger" radioisotope that is intended to kill the cancer cell once it attaches to it by the mechanism described above for point 6. Illuccix has a "weaker" radioisotope that is better for imaging like a PET scan. Again, molecular targeting described above will reveal exactly where the cancer is and identify it as a PSMA cancer.
One of the beauties of all this, of course, is that you can first identify and localise the cancer by imaging and then send in the laser-guided missile which uses the same targeting molecule but a different radioisotope.
Speaking more generally, a good way to think about Telix is that it is a great example of a company that is in the vanguard of an emerging new paradigm in healthcare known as
precision medicine. This means instead of using a one size fits all approach to treating disease (think old school chemo) which works for some but not for many, in the future patients will be treated according to the specific characteristics (often molecular) of their personal disease. This is a seismic shift occurring in healthcare (not just cancer) over the next decade.
(20min delay)