The new technology to produce radiopharmaceutical drug used in early diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease using PET scan, has been developed by a joint task force between Dr.Oh Seung-joon’s Team of AMC Department of Nuclear Medicine, and Dr.Ji Dae-yoon’s Team of Future Chem. This technology has recently been patented in the United States.
The joint research team developed innovative technology which improves PET radiopharmaceutical drug production rates by 40%, and now, it is under review for patent in 30 countries around the world.
The production rate refers to the amount of radiopharmaceutical drugs to be produced when raw materials (100) are inputted. If the new technology is applied, the production rate would increase from 1% to 40%. In other words, the innovative technology would make mass production possible.
Professor Oh Seung-joon / Department of Nuclear Medicine
The newly patented technology is original technology which makes the mass production of radiopharmaceutical drugs possible through a PET test. In particular, this technology has been applied to FPCIT to diagnose Parkinson’s disease. AMC has used it in examining and diagnosing patients with Parkinson’s disease and checking the effect of medical treatment.
Dr. Ji Dae-yoon / Future Chem
AMC and Future Chem have played a leading role in the production of radiopharmaceutical drugs in the world. The joint research establishes a bridgehead to spread the technology throughout the world.
PET scans, which have been widely used to detect cancer, are also useful in detecting neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s at an early stage using diverse radiopharmaceutical drugs.
However, the radiopharmaceutical drugs used in PET scans have been short in terms of radiological duration, which made it difficult to achieve mass production. Therefore, it has not been easy to use the technology in reality.
However, the innovative technology developed by the joint research team makes the mass production of radiopharmaceutical drugs possible, and it appears that it will make a big contribution to bio-industry policy which has been designated as one of the nation’s four growth engines.
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