The Biden administration has released the National Cancer Plan, a framework that expands and builds on the Cancer Moonshot program which came into being in 2016. The National Cancer Plan includes a strategies section that calls for development of new methods for detecting cancer and new imaging technologies for early cancer detection, just two provisions that would seem to portend good times ahead for companies that manufacture these products.

Merck & Co. Inc. has seen promise in Proxygen GmbH’s molecular glue degrader technology, agreeing to pay the drug discovery company up to $2.55 billion if specified research, development and commercial milestones are met.

The possibilities of cures for cancer and other tough-to-treat diseases and the ability to further personalize medicine are creating a lot of excitement about the future of radiopharmaceuticals as both therapy and diagnostics. To reach that future, industry and researchers will have to overcome a lot of challenges, not the least of which stem from the multiple government agencies involved in regulating the source material, development, distribution and use of radioactive drugs and devices.

The radiopharma field has garnered increasing attention in recent years due to big-ticket deals like Bayer AG's $2.9 billion acquisition of Algeta ASA and Novartis AG's nearly $6 billion spent on buying Advanced Accelerator Applications SA and Endocyte Inc. As a result, competition is ratcheting up and pipelines are exploding with new combinations of different drugs. The global radiopharmaceuticals market was estimated to be valued at $6.7 billion in 2020, a number expected to reach $11.5 billion by 2027, according to a 2022 William Blair report.