Pharmaceutical company SciFluor Life Sciences announced that it has reached an agreement with Harvard University to extend its license of proprietary fluorine technology to the field of PET imaging.
Under the new agreement, SciFluor will gain access to technology that enables the rapid, efficient synthesis of fluorine-18-labeled molecules. The company said that with the technology, it will be capable of developing sophisticated fluorine-18 PET tracers that were previously inaccessible.
Researchers who use SciFluor technology in PET imaging will now be able to observe a broader range of a drug's cellular and metabolic activity in vivo, according to the company. They will be able to determine, for example, the drug's capacity to cross the blood-brain barrier, its ability to hit the relevant biological targets, and, ultimately, the drug's dose effectiveness and potential clinical benefit.
SciFluor had previously obtained an exclusive worldwide license from Harvard University to various fluorination methods and to a portfolio of novel fluorinated compounds.
