TAE Life Sciences, which is developing next-generation cancer treatments with technology first developed at nuclear reactors, says it’s participating in a Chinese trial that could be groundbreaking.
The trial, which is being conducted by a Chinese company called Neuboron Medical at Xiamen Humanity Hospital, will treat 80 patients who have neck and brain cancers that are recurring despite prior treatments. If the trial goes well, the Chinese government could approve Neuboron’s technology within 18 months, according to TAE Life Chief Executive Rob Hill.
“That will be a big deal because once it’s approved in China, many more hospitals can adopt the technology,” Hill told the Business Journal. “We’ll see a big commercial ramp in China.”
TAE Life, which has raised $100 million from outside investors to date, is currently fundraising for a Series C round with a goal of $75 million. The company’s valuation has risen to $400 million from $300 million a year ago, Hill said.
“We need capital to run large-scale clinical studies,” Hill said. “Our company is starting to become noticed. Major players in the industry are becoming interested in us.”
The company in April named a new board member: Dr. Deepak “Dee” Khuntia, whom the company called “a pioneer in the field of radiation oncology.”
“I believe in the promising future of Boron Neutron Capture Therapy (BNCT) and its potential to transform the landscape of radiation oncology,” Khuntia, senior vice president of medical affairs and chief medical officer at Varian, a Siemens Healthineers company, said in a statement.
“I look forward to working closely with the board and management team to drive advancements in cancer care and improve patient outcomes.”
Nuclear Background
BNCT is a cancer treatment that utilizes neutron irradiation to activate boron-loaded compounds selectively localized in tumor cells for targeted therapy. First theorized in the 1930s, the first clinical trials took place in the 1950s at nuclear reactors.
It didn’t gain traction because there wasn’t a practical way to make neutrons available in a hospital and not in a research reactor.
While the industry faded in the U.S. in the 1990s, it remained popular in Japan and China because head and neck cancers are more prevalent there, Hill said.
A decade ago, Sumitomo unveiled the first accelerator-based system and Japan approved it for recurrent and advanced head and neck cancers in late 2020.
The industry is expected to grow from $174 million in 2023 to $2.2 billion by 2030, according to Intel Market Research. About half of that growth will be in Asia, it estimated. Besides Sumitomo, other companies in this industry include Neutron Therapeutics, International Particle Therapy Inc. and RaySearch.
TAE Life in 2017 was spun out of Foothill Ranch-based nuclear fusion company TAE Technologies, which is trying to develop a nearly unlimited source of clean energy and has raised more than $1.2 billion to date.
Hill took over last year when prior CEO Bruce Bauer stepped aside for health reasons. Hill has 30 years of experience as an executive and researcher in the radiation oncology industry, including at Accuray Inc. and North American Scientific.
“I’ve made it my life’s work to cure cancer,” Hill said. “The thing I realized early in life is that cancer touches all of us. There’s no avoiding that reality. One in three people alive will get cancer at some point in their lives.”
When Hill started his career, patients were radiated over much larger parts of their bodies, including the healthy tissue. Gradually over the years, the radiation has become more targeted. Nowadays, TAE Life says it can target cancer cells at the cellular level, as small as 15 to 20 microns, thus avoiding damage to healthy cells.
“It’s hugely more accurate targeting cancers that live in the cells,” Hill said. “There really isn’t anything else out there that can target radiation with that degree of precision.
“I believe this approach can be used to cure cancer.”
$45M Each
TAE Life, which has 100 employees, has developed a machine called the Alphabeam System that’s much smaller than a reactor and can make neutrons available in a hospital.
The company is also developing its own medication, having won last November a patent for a boron neutron capture drug “that marks a significant milestone in the field of radiation therapy.”
If approved after clinical trials, the company’s strategy is to sell the machines and drugs in a method like how printer companies offload their printers at low prices and profit off the ink.
Each system costs about $25 million and another $20 million to construct or renovate a facility with sufficient shielding. TAE Life has estimated there are 500 to 600 centers worldwide that may buy the system.
A big advantage will be delivering therapy in a single treatment where patients won’t need radiation for months and hence a cancer center could treat thousands of patients annually rather than hundreds.
In the past two years, TAE Life’s technology was used in a pre-clinical “compassionate” test of 24 patients by Neuboron. About 71% saw a complete or partial disappearance of their tumors, Hill said.
“In none of the patients, have we seen the tumor grow at that 90-day follow up point. Those are exciting results.”
In April, TAE Life’s Neutron Beam System received performance acceptance and passed Class 3 registration inspection—greenlighting the clinical trial to begin in June at Xiamen Humanity Hospital.
Besides China, TAE Life is also building its first system in Europe at an Italian hospital where a clinical trial will start in 2025. It has a memorandum of understanding with five other European hospitals.
The company is currently in discussions with American hospitals, including one in Southern California. When asked if Hill is talking to health officials who are building three hospitals in Irvine—UCI Medical, City of Hope Orange County and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian, Hill replied, “We’re talking to all the people that you’d expect.”
The goal is to get its technology approved by 2026 in the United States.
“We will sign our first U.S. customer this summer,” he said. “We’re on a journey to commercialize this technology.”
