Biotech Reality Check: Why OPM and Navigo Ended Their Cancer Drug Pact

DIJON, France – December 29, 2025 – In a move that underscores the high-risk, high-reward nature of modern drug development, French biopharmaceutical firm Oncodesign Precision Medicine (OPM) and Germany’s Navigo Proteins GmbH have mutually agreed to terminate their strategic collaboration. The partnership, announced with considerable optimism just over 18 months ago in May 2024, was aimed at discovering and developing novel radiotheranostic agents to fight resistant and metastatic cancers.

The official announcement cited a “standard prioritization process” and the collaboration not meeting its “expected potential within program timelines” as the reasons for the dissolution. While disappointing, the decision is a stark reminder of the immense scientific and logistical hurdles inherent in the early stages of biopharmaceutical research, particularly in a cutting-edge field like radiotheranostics.

A Promising Start Hits a Roadblock

The collaboration was initially hailed as a powerful synergy of complementary technologies. It intended to combine OPM’s PROMETHE® platform, which designs radiolabeled molecules for systemic radiotherapy, with Navigo’s proprietary Affilin® technology. Affilins are small, stable, and highly specific proteins designed to act as biological vectors, carrying radioactive payloads directly to tumor cells. The goal was to create a new class of precision medicines that could both diagnose and treat cancer simultaneously.

The initial research was set to focus on two different cancer targets, specifically within resistant and metastatic digestive tract tumors, with OPM funding the program for the first three years. The goal was to advance new molecules to the coveted drug candidate stage. However, the path from concept to candidate proved more challenging than anticipated.

In a statement, OPM CEO Philippe Genne alluded to the scientific obstacles, noting that “challenges with the first selected targets” contributed to the collaboration not achieving its expected potential. This admission points to the fundamental uncertainty of early-stage discovery, where even the most promising biological targets can prove intractable or fail to yield the desired therapeutic effect.

The High-Stakes World of Radiotheranostics

The OPM-Navigo partnership was navigating one of the hottest and most competitive sectors in oncology. The global radiotheranostics market, valued at over $7.5 billion in 2022, is projected by analysts to soar to more than $20 billion by 2030. This explosive growth is fueled by the demand for personalized medicine and the clinical success of landmark drugs like Novartis’s Pluvicto® for prostate cancer and Lutathera® for neuroendocrine tumors.

These therapies work by pairing a diagnostic radioisotope, which makes cancer cells visible on scans like a PET/CT, with a therapeutic radioisotope, such as Lutetium-177, that delivers a lethal dose of radiation directly to the tumor while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. The field represents a paradigm shift in cancer treatment, moving away from generalized chemotherapy toward highly targeted, individualized care.

However, the path to market is fraught with challenges. Beyond the scientific difficulty of developing effective targeting molecules and stable radiopharmaceuticals, companies face hurdles including the high cost of development, the short shelf-life of radioactive agents, and a fragile global supply chain for essential medical isotopes, many of which are produced in aging nuclear reactors. The intense competition means that speed and efficiency are critical, and programs that fail to show rapid progress are often cut to reallocate resources to more promising ventures.

The Inevitable Calculus of Biotech Alliances

The termination of the OPM-Navigo agreement is far from an anomaly in the biotechnology industry. Industry analyses suggest that more than half of all early-stage research partnerships ultimately fail to meet their objectives. These dissolutions are often not the result of a single catastrophic failure but rather a complex calculation of scientific progress, strategic alignment, and resource management.

Experts point to a so-called “collaboration tax”—the increased communication load, differing corporate cultures, and potential for disagreement that can slow projects down. For a partnership to succeed, there must be tight alignment on technical milestones, decision-making processes, and, most importantly, a willingness to adapt when the initial scientific premise is challenged by unexpected data. When a project, particularly in its early phases, does not generate compelling data within a predefined timeline, partners must make the difficult decision to either invest more resources or pivot. For both OPM and Navigo, the decision was to pivot.

This kind of strategic recalibration, while difficult, is a necessary component of portfolio management in biopharma. It allows companies to cut their losses on less promising avenues and double down on internal programs or other partnerships that show greater potential, ensuring that capital and talent are deployed as effectively as possible.

Charting Independent Courses Forward

Far from signaling a retreat, the end of the collaboration marks the beginning of new, independent strategies for both companies in the radiotheranostics space. Oncodesign Precision Medicine has affirmed its commitment to its internal COMETE program, which also focuses on developing radiotheranostics for advanced digestive cancers. The company continues to build its broader pipeline, supported by its Nanocyclix® kinase inhibitor platform. Its lead candidate, OPM-101, recently received clearance to begin Phase 1b/2a oncology trials after showing a strong safety profile in healthy volunteers. To bolster its strategy, OPM secured up to €5 million in equity financing earlier in 2025 to support its liquidity and development efforts.

Meanwhile, Navigo Proteins is aggressively pursuing its own radiotheranostics program, leveraging its Affilin® and HEAD® platform technologies with a stated focus on accelerated clinical development for gastric cancers. The German firm has been actively forging other alliances, including a collaboration with VERAXA Biotech to explore novel pre-targeting strategies and a partnership with the Belgian nuclear research center SCK CEN to develop next-generation therapies using the promising Terbium-161 radioisotope. These moves indicate that Navigo remains deeply committed to the field, now pursuing its goals through a different set of strategic partnerships and internal initiatives.