In 2006, scientists from Purdue University designed a targeting ligand that bound with high affinity and specificity to PSMA on prostate cancer cells and patentedPSMA binding ligand-linker conjugates and methods for using; https://patents.google.com/patent/US11318121B2/en?oq=US11318121 PSMA binding ligand-linker conjugates and methods for using; https://patents.google.com/patent/US10406240B2/en?oq=US10406240its ability to target attached radionuclides such as 177Lu, 99mTc, 68Ga, etc. to prostate cancers. The patents were licensed to Endocyte in 2007. In 2012, scientists at German Cancer Research Center and University Hospital Heidelberg improved the drug's affinity, patented,Labeled inhibitors of prostate specific membrane antigen (psma), their use as imaging agents and pharmaceutical agents for the treatment of prostate cancer; https://patents.google.com/patent/US20160228587A1/en?oq=US2016%2f0228587A1 and licensed to ABX advanced biomedical compounds, a small German pharmaceutical company, for early clinical development. In 2017, the ABX patent was also acquired by Endocyte and Endocyte together with the above two sets of patents was acquired by Novartis in 2018.
