About

Macrocyclics – A short history and future directions.

Macrocyclics was founded in 1995 by Professor A. Dean Sherry as a result of his pioneering research in the development macrocyclic ligands for metal ions and their use as MRI contrast media. His ground breaking work stimulated worldwide interest by many researchers in the field and created a demand for macrocyclic chelating agents that were first prepared in the Sherry lab. Due to the challenging nature of the syntheses and purification, Professor Sherry would frequently receive requests for samples by his colleagues which eventually grew beyond the capacity of his UTD research lab to manage. The result was the birth of “Magnetic Resonance Solutions” in 1993 which was later renamed Macrocyclics in 1995.

During the early years the company’s revenue consisted of a few catalog products and several NIH and SBIR grants. The R&D funding provided through these grants enabled the company to generate new products and intellectual assets that stimulated growth in the field of nuclear medicine which relies heavily on chelating agents for imaging and therapy. This new found customer base rapidly generated projects that greatly expanded the catalog product line. Furthermore, many of these new customers were engaged in clinical development programs which demanded careful quality control in the production of chelating agents used in these studies. These stringent requirements prompted the launch of our custom cGMP manufacturing services in 2004.

In 2009 Macrocyclics was contracted by Orano Med (previously AREVA Med) to perform the cGMP manufacturing of the chelating agent to be used in their clinical trial with Pb-212. During this collaboration, Orano Med recognized the dynamic synergy that existed between the two organizations and the value that a merger would offer both companies. In October 2011 Orano Med acquired Macrocyclics and in April 2016 we relocated to our newly constructed facility in in Plano Texas. The new facility is equipped with state of the art chemistry and biology laboratories as well as a radio-chemistry lab licensed to include all of the most popular radionuclides for PET imaging and therapeutic applications. This is an exciting time in our development and we are extremely grateful to you, our customers, for the many years of support that have made Macrocyclics successful.

Garry E. Kiefer

Director of Research and Development