GE Healthcare to expand EU PET tracer production

GE Healthcare has announced plans to expand its European production capacity of positron emission tomography (PET) tracers via a new agreement with Advanced Accelerator Applications.

This new partnership with the molecular nuclear medicine specialist will provide capacity for PET tracer development at a cumulative total of 20 sites and initial coverage in 11 countries.

This will complement GE Healthcare's existing TracerNET network and will aid the company's efforts to implement a pan-European PET distribution network over the next few years.

Currently, the firm has 15 tracers in various stages of development across its PET portfolio, with this new partnership with one of Europe's leading independent third-party PET manufacturers set to aid these efforts.

Jonathan Allis, molecular imaging and PET general manager at GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics, said: "Molecular imaging plays an important role in enabling confident medical decisions and is the basis of our business."

Earlier this month, the company announced a new biopharmaceutical research collaboration with Ireland's National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training, which will aim to create new biopharmaceutical research technology.