Imaging Agents in Development for Evaluation of Coronary Artery Disease and Heart Failure

Research presentations on two new nuclear imaging agents developed for coronary disease were presented in a medical meeting in June 2010.

Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. (North Billerica, MA, USA), a company focused on diagnostic imaging technology, announced that 14 new abstracts from two of the company's positron emission tomography (PET) products in development were presented at the SNM (Reston, VA, USA) 57th annual meeting, being held June 5-9, 2010, in Salt Lake City, UT, USA. Preliminary data from a phase 2 study on flurpiridaz F-18 (formerly known as BMS747158), a myocardial perfusion PET imaging agent to diagnose coronary artery disease, and phase 1 data on LMI1195, an innovative cardiac neuronal PET imaging agent, was featured in a series of oral and poster presentations at the meeting.

"The amount of data on two of our PET cardiac imaging candidates that will be presented at this year's SNM annual meeting highlights the progress and commitment of Lantheus in advancing our pipeline. We are pleased to be able to share this information with the scientific community,” said Don Kiepert, president and chief executive officer of Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. "The fact that SNM has chosen to feature 14 of our abstracts is a testament to the growing interest in the value of PET technology for cardiac imaging. We believe that flurpiridaz F-18 and LMI1195 have the potential to transform how patients with coronary artery disease or heart failure are evaluated and treated.”

Flurpiridaz F-18, a fluorine 18-labeled agent that binds to mitochondrial complex 1 (MC-1), is designed to be a novel myocardial perfusion PET imaging agent for the diagnosis of coronary artery disease (CAD). Flurpiridaz F 18 has completed phase 2 clinical trials. CAD is the leading cause of death in the United States for both men and women. Each year, more than half a million in the United States alone die from CAD.

Phase 1 studies indicated that flurpiridaz F-18 is well tolerated and demonstrates radiation dosimetry that is comparable to, or less than, that of other PET imaging agents. The data also showed high myocardial uptake at rest that significantly increased with pharmacologically induced stress as well as a ratio of myocardial to background uptake that was favorable and improved over time, suggesting its strong potential as a myocardial perfusion PET-imaging agent for patients both at rest and under stress.

LMI1195 is a novel F-18 small molecule tracer designed to use molecular imaging and PET technology to improve imaging of cardiac neuronal function. LMI1195 is currently in phase 1 clinical trials. In preclinical studies, LMI1195 showed promise as a heart failure imaging agent with high cardiac sympathetic nervous system uptake.

Lantheus Medical Imaging discovers, develops, and markets innovative medical imaging agents to provide a strong platform from which to bring forward breakthrough new tools for the diagnosis and management of disease.

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