Curium has completed the acquisition of Abscint SA, a Belgium-based clinical-stage radiopharmaceutical company, adding ABS-011, an investigational gallium-68-labeled positron emission tomography (PET) radiodiagnostic tracer targeting human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), to its oncology imaging portfolio. The deal gives Boston-headquartered Curium global rights to develop, manufacture, and commercialize ABS-011 in breast and gastric cancers, two indications where HER2 expression is clinically significant, with no financial terms disclosed.
ABS-011 uses a radiolabeled single-domain antibody (sdAb) engineered to bind HER2 rapidly, with unbound tracer clearing quickly from the bloodstream. The pharmacokinetic profile enables same-day, whole-body PET imaging of HER2 expression across multiple lesions simultaneously — an approach the company said could reveal spatial heterogeneity in HER2 status that single-lesion biopsy may miss, and help clinicians select a more informative lesion for tissue sampling. The asset is currently being evaluated in the HERMIA trial (NCT06369831), a multicenter Phase IIb study running in Belgium. Abscint was a spin-off from Vrije Universiteit Brussel and had been backed by investors including Qbic, Noshaq, Wallonie Entreprendre, and strategic partner Trasis.
The acquisition extends Curium's diagnostic pipeline beyond its established prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumor franchises into HER2-driven solid tumors. Existing HER2 imaging approaches rely primarily on antibody-based tracers with longer clearance times that typically require multi-day imaging protocols; the sdAb format used in ABS-011 is designed to compress that workflow into a single session.
The Abscint deal is one of several moves Curium has made in rapid succession. In June 2026, the company committed EUR 32 million to build a European ¹⁷⁷Lu-PSMA-I&T production line at its Saclay facility, and it separately cleared a patent dispute against Novartis that had blocked its lutetium Lu-177 dotatate product from entering the US market. One week before the Abscint announcement, Curium disclosed a definitive agreement to merge with Lantheus Holdings (Nasdaq: LNTH) in an all-cash transaction valued at up to USD 8.0 billion, a deal that would combine Curium's theranostics manufacturing platform with Lantheus's US radiodiagnostics commercial franchise across oncology, neurology, and cardiology. The Abscint acquisition adds an early-to-mid-stage HER2 diagnostic asset to that expanding portfolio ahead of the Lantheus close, which is expected in the first half of 2027.