Our Focus
Serac Healthcare is focused on bringing effective imaging tools to the market to accelerate diagnosis, improve monitoring, and enable earlier and more effective treatment decisions for patients. Our primary focus is on conditions which are characterised by abnormal angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation) with major unmet clinical needs: endometriosis, inflammatory arthritis and interstitial lung disease.
Problem
Endometriosis: the invisible pain
Endometriosis is estimated to affect about 10 percent of women of childbearing age. In this condition, cells similar to the ones lining the uterus (the endometrium) grow elsewhere in the abdomen and sometimes even farther afield. These cells react to the menstrual cycle each month and also bleed.
However, there is no way for this blood to leave the body. This can cause inflammation, pain, and the formation of scar tissue. Endometriosis can have a significant impact on a person’s life in a number of ways, including:
- Chronic pain
- Fatigue
- Depression
- An inability to conceive
- Poor attendance at school/ higher education
- Problems with a couple’s sex life/relationships
- Difficulty in fulfilling work and social commitments
- 50% of women with fertility issues also have endometriosis
Images courtesy of Prof C Becker, University of Oxford
Our Approach
New Diagnostic Potential for Endometriosis
There is currently no cure for endometriosis but treatments can reduce the severity of symptoms and improve the quality of life. A definitive diagnosis requires laparoscopy – an operation in which a camera (a laparoscope) is inserted into the pelvis via small cuts in the abdomen.
However, appropriate treatment can only be delivered following an accurate diagnosis and there is currently an average of nine years from onset of symptoms to diagnosis.
There is, therefore, a clear need for a simple, rapid, robust, reliable, readily accessible, and cost-effective technique to diagnose and visualise endometriosis and guide treatment decisions. Such a validated test could also play an important role in assisting the development of future therapies.
The growth of endometrial tissue is dependent upon new blood vessel formation (angiogenesis) which studies have shown can be imaged with 99mTc-maraciclatide, indicating that 99mTc-maraciclatide has the potential to be a non-invasive diagnostic for endometriosis which could benefit millions of women worldwide.
Our Phase II clinical study has demonstrated that 99mTc-maraciclatide is capable of imaging superficial peritoneal endometriosis (SPE) – the earliest stage of the disease which is not well-visualised with current imaging tools.
The full results from this study have been published by the researchers from the Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health at the University of Oxford in The Lancet Obstetrics, Gynaecology and Women’s Health.
99mTc-maraciclatide has been awarded Fast Track Designation by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the diagnosis and visualisation of SPE in women aged sixteen years and older.
The outline designs of our Phase III trials have been agreed by the US FDA and planning for the start of these studies is underway.
Problem
Management of Patients with Inflammatory Arthritis is Challenging
Rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and axial spondyloarthritis (AxSpA) are chronic, progressive, painful, incurable conditions in which the body’s own immune system attacks the joints. If untreated they can result in irreversible joint damage and permanent disability.
Multiple therapies are available that can slow or even halt disease progression but it remains a challenge to identify which treatment is best for each individual patient:
- There is no definitive blood marker, such as blood glucose levels in diabetes
- X-rays show the damage that has already been done to the joints
- Full clinical assessments require significant hands-on time with a rheumatologist and symptoms do not always correlate with the underlying disease process
- MRI is expensive and not readily accessible
- Ultrasound is highly dependent upon the skill of the operator and is time-consuming
SPECT-CT images with 99mTc-maraciclatide – courtesy of Dr T Garrood, Guy’s Hospital
Our Approach
Whole Body Imaging in a 20 Minute Scan
Clinical studies are exploring whether 99mTc-maraciclatide could allow rheumatologists to see inflammation in the joints which could help them deliver the right treatment to the right patient at the right time (personalised medicine) potentially leading to improved outcomes and better quality of life.
99mTc-maraciclatide planar imaging has the potential to image the whole body, highlighting total inflammatory load in the joints in a 20-minute scan, aiming to produce images that are easy to interpret even to the untrained observer.
Results from a 50 patient Phase II study, published in Academic Radiology, concluded that 99mTc-maraciclatide “shows promise as a whole-body imaging modality to detect and quantify the burden of synovial inflammation in RA to inform time-critical treatment decisions.”
A Phase III study evaluating the efficacy of 99mTc-maraciclatide as an imaging agent for the detection of synovitis in patients with rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis is ongoing alongside a Phase II study to determine whether it is possible for imaging with 99mTc-maraciclatide to predict disease progression.
PROBLEM
Distinguishing between inflammation and fibrosis in ILD patients is critical yet extremely difficult
Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) encompasses over 200 disorders affecting lung function, characterized by progressive inflammation, fibrosis, and reduced quality of life. With an estimated 650,000 cases in the United States and a life expectancy of three to five years for patients with the most severe forms, ILD represents a significant unmet medical need.
Current treatment efficacy hinges on the balance between inflammation and fibrosis. Therapies are available which can be effective when administered to the appropriate patients, but these can be detrimental if, for example, an anti-inflammatory treatment is given to a fibrotic patient or vice-versa. Compounding this challenge, ILD symptoms are nonspecific and often present late in disease progression, making detection difficult.
Accurate, early differentiation between inflammation and fibrosis is critical to guiding treatment decisions, predicting disease outcomes, and monitoring therapy response.
SPECT-CT image with99mTc-maraciclatide – courtesy of Dr G Dixon, University of Exeter
Our Approach
Distinguishing Inflammation from Fibrosis in Interstitial Lung Disease
We are investigating 99mTc-maraciclatide’s ability to image angiogenesis (new blood vessel formation) which is a key feature of inflammation has the potential to help physicians to distinguish between early-stage inflammation and the ensuing fibrosis in order to determine the most appropriate treatment for each individual.
Initial findings from a Phase II clinical study have demonstrated that uptake of 99mTc-maraciclatide was increased in patients with interstitial lung disease (ILD) compared with healthy controls. These findings have been presented by experts at the University of Exeter in a poster at the European Respiratory Society congress and were highlighted at a major nuclear medicine congress, SNMMI. Further analysis from the study is ongoing.
An imaging tool which could distinguish between the different stages of ILD could not only have an immediate impact on patient outcomes but also has the potential to contribute significantly to our understanding of these conditions and the development of new therapies.
In February 2026, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) granted Fast Track Designation to 99mTc-maraciclatide as a diagnostic SPECT-CT agent for the “visualization of inflammation in the lungs of patients with known and suspected interstitial lung disease (ILD).”
R&D Pipeline
99mTc-maraciclatide is in development for the following indications:
Indication | Phase 1 | Phase 2 | Phase 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
Endometriosis | Completed | Completed – Awarded FDA Fast Track Designation for SPE | Outline design aligned with FDA |
Inflammatory Arthritis | Completed | Completed | Ongoing in RA and PsA |
Interstitial Lung Disease | Completed | Completed – Awarded FDA Fast Track Designation | |
Other indications | Completed | Assessing |