Radiopharmaceuticals

Rubidium-82 radionuclide has the advantage to be available on demand from a strontium-82/rubidium-82 generator associated with an infuser and directly connected to a vein of a patient installed on the bed of a PET system.

This device has already obtained the approval for a clinical use in the US and also in some countries in Europe. The ease of use and accessibility of the rubidium generators enabled to make the cardiac perfusion analysis accessible to a large number of US nuclear medicine departments unlike nitrogen-13 or oxygen-15 which needs an on-site cyclotron to be produced.

A new radiopharmaceutical agent (Flurpiridaz) labelled with fluor-18 radionuclide for its production in low energy cyclotron is under final development in the US and in Europe.