Bayer Schering licenses novel PET tracers

Germany's Bayer Schering Pharma and Japan's University of Nagasaki have signed a licensing agreement on the use of novel substances for molecular imaging. Being used as tracers in positron emission tomography, these compounds could make it possible to allow an early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease. According to the agreement, Bayer will receive exclusive worldwide rights to develop and market a set of radiolabeled molecules.

Tracers labeled with fluorine-18, a short-lived radioisotope, are used in PET, an imaging technique that can be used, for example, to produce images of molecular processes involved in diseases of the central nervous system. PET tracers bind specifically to amyloid beta, a pathological accumulation of protein in the brain, which is causally associated with Alzheimer's. F18-labeled PET tracers could enable the detection of disease signs at a very early stage, Bayer noted, adding that this could expand the opportunities for the diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases.