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A radiant future: Wallonia firm's role in nuclear medicine

12:49 02/01/2018
Radiopharmaceutical company teams up with US network to distribute diagnostic tool

Nuclear medicine may sound a little unusual because of the link with radioactivity, but it is increasingly being considered a powerful and safe way to battle and diagnose cancers. Hainaut’s IRE-ELiT, a global frontrunner in the field, has signed a deal with American network Cardinal Health to distribute its Galli Eo diagnostic tool in the US.

For decades, Wallonia has been an important player in nuclear medicine, with the National Institute for Radioelements (IRE) founded in 1971 in Fleurus, near Charleroi.

In 2010, the region strengthened this position by creating the half-public, half-private subsidiary IRE-ELiT – ELiT being short for Environment & Lifescience Technology.

“ELiT is a lab that uses the radioisotopes produced at IRE to develop pharmaceutical products for hospitals,” explains Bérénice Pignol, business development product manager at IRE-ELiT. “We also offer services to analyse the radioactivity level of certain commodities, like water, for various industries.”

IRE-ELiT has two flagship products: Galli Eo and the Rheni Eo therapeutic tool. Galli Eo is used to diagnose neuroendocrine cancers and prostate cancer, among other diseases, through positron-emission tomography (PET) scans. Rheni Eo is used mainly to treat liver cancers and bone metastases.

The tools are what are known as generators, technology that combines a radioisotope with a molecule that guides the radioisotope to a certain part in the body. For diagnostic purposes, a radioisotope is used that emits radiation to give a better view of a certain tumour or organ on a scan. For therapeutic goals, the radioisotope targets the tissue of a tumour so it can destroy it.

The use of Galli Eo in Europe is still limited to research and clinical trials. By April 2018, European hospitals should be able to use it in PET scans. Because of regulation differences, the tool can already be used in the US, Australia, Turkey and South America.

Last summer, IRE-ELiT signed an agreement with the American Cardinal Health network to distribute Galli Eo in the US from January.

“Cardinal Health has about 120 radiopharmacies, each of which delivers products to about 10 hospitals,” says Pignol. “While not all these hospitals will immediately switch to Galli Eo, the deal is still a major boost for us.”

Cardinal Health wasn’t the only company that showed an interest, as Galli Eo has important advantages over other products.

“Galli Eo allows for a very precise and patient-friendly diagnosis, such as limiting the emission of radiation in the patient’s body to only one hour,” explains Pignol.

“Its innovative, simple design also limits the risk of errors by staff.” While previous products needed to be first connected to a cyclotron, an expensive machine, the Galli Eo can be used directly by medical staff. “It makes the whole procedure quicker, cheaper and simpler.”

IRE-ELiT is supported by BioWin, the Walloon region’s health competitiveness cluster, while AWEX, Wallonia’s export and foreign investment agency, encouraged its commercial development.

Despite success stories like Galli Eo, nuclear medicine is still not entirely mainstream, because of its link with radioactivity. “We strictly respect both the pharmaceutical and radioactivity regulations,” says Pignol. “Our products don’t entail any risks to the health of patients.”

According to Pignol, the future of the sector looks bright. Lutathera has been approved by the EU as first-line therapy for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumours. “It means radiopharmaceutical treatments are no longer considered a last resort,” she says.

The firm that created Lutathera, French firm AAA, was bought by the Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis. “As major pharmaceutical companies get more interested in nuclear medicine, the budgets for the development of these products are becoming bigger, which is good news for the sector,” says Pignol.

Written by Andy Furniere