Offers new hope to patients in India Targets additional centres in Mumbai, Bangalore, and Hyderabad
New Delhi, June 20, 2006 - GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE) that provides diagnostic imaging systems, medical diagnostic agents, diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, drug discovery tools and protein separation systems, today announced that it is setting up India's first Radiopharmacy Centre in the national capital - Delhi. The new Radiopharmacy Centre will offer isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals in unit doses to various nuclear medicine hospitals and healthcare centres in and around Delhi. Additional Radiopharmacy centres are also planned for Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. The Centre will be operational by the end of the year.
The Radiopharmacy Centre will be used to label and produce radiopharmaceutical imaging tracers and radioisotopes -- a critical requirement for imaging patients using nuclear imaging, Single Photon Emission Tomography (SPECT), Positron Emission Tomography (PET) imaging and PET/CT systems. Diagnostic examinations by these systems are used to evaluate a variety of diseases ranging from coronary artery disease (Myocardial perfusion Imaging), cancer, infection, renal disease and brain-related diseases like Parkinson's Disease, Alzheimer's, epilepsy and stroke. In nuclear imaging SPECT, a small amount of gamma emitting radioisotope (radiopharmaceutical) is injected and its distribution is mapped according to the blood supply and function of the organ of interest. In PET, the injected radiopharmaceutical releases positrons (i.e. the anti particle of the electron), which are absorbed in tissue, releasing two photons at 180 degrees apart.
At present, hospitals and nuclear medicine centres in India are importing the isotopes used for SPECT studies (Technetium-99m, Thallium-201) and since these isotopes have a decay period ranging from 6 hrs to 72.5 hrs, it means that the isotope loses more than half of its life by the time it can be administered to the patient. PET imaging also relies on radioisotopes (O15, FDG) that have further shorter half-lives of only 2 to 110 minutes and hence they must be administered to the patient soon after production, before their radioactivity decays to a point below usefulness. The introduction of the Central Radiopharmacies would address this critical issue of the delivery of both SPECT and PET pharmaceuticals on time, thereby resulting in better patient management.
"The launch of India's first Radiopharmacy Centre underscores our commitment to fulfill one of our chief business priorities -- to get as close to the healthcare providers in India as possible. This new Radiopharmacy Centre will help broaden the use of radiopharmacy applications and functional imaging technology in India. It will also provides a viable solution to the Nuclear Medicine departments currently facing logistics and manpower shortage, by giving them a more reliable and cost-effective way to keep pace with the growing demand for SPECT/PET imaging, consistent in delivering good patient care. Our broader vision is to set up similar Radiopharmacy Centres across the country in Mumbai, Bangalore and Hyderabad to support all nuclear medicine users in India," said Mr. V Raja, President & CEO, GE Healthcare South Asia.
Dr. Harsh Mahajan, Director of the Mahajan Imaging Centre in New Delhi said, "In India, the usage of SPECT/ PET has been severely curtailed owing to the shortage and viability concerns of the radioisotopes used in these nuclear medicine investigations. Now, with the setting up of these Radiopharmacies, we will not only have the Isotope made available in India at a significantly lower cost but it will also help overcome the delay and the logistic problems associated with the transportation of these isotopes, thus contributing in making the SPECT/PET modalities much more effective -- which is good news for patients. GE Healthcare's new Radiopharmacy Centres will enable us and various other medical establishments in Delhi and NCR to have easy access to critical tracers for SPECT/PET imaging, contributing to the overall growth of these modalities in India."
Mr. Sarvadeep Sachdev, Managing Director, Medical Diagnostics, GE Healthcare South Asia said, "The advantages of a local Radiopharmacy Centre are immense. It allows the same-day delivery of products, dispenses patient specific prescriptions, maintains continuous and immediate pharmacy services, lowers radiation exposure in hospital (staff, patients and public), greatly simplifies required paperwork, reduces risk, increases safety and reduces the cost to a patient and to the hospital. This will propel the market for Nuclear Medicine procedures in India to grow at a rate of more than 15% p.a. as against the present growth rate of 10-12% annually. "
Amersham Health Private Limited, part of GE Healthcare, has obtained the permission from Atomic Energy Regulatory Board of India to import bulk quantities of radiopharmaceutical cold kits and label them with technetium-99m to produce a ready-to-use injectable form for the Nuclear Medicine Departments in India.
GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.
GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases, and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention.
Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $15 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 43,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.
Purnima SahniMohanty
GE Corporate Manager - Communications
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