AAA has announced the strategic expansion of its European positron emission tomography (PET) manufacturing network in Germany, Portugal and southern Spain.
The initiative includes the acquisition of the majority stake in Umbra Medical AG in Germany, the acquisition of a PET production laboratory in Porto (Portugal) from GE Healthcare and the construction of a new radiopharmaceutical facility in southern Spain (Murcia), after winning a public tender by the Servicio Murciano de Salud.
Through the acquisition of the majority stake in Umbra Medical AG, AAA enters the German market for the first time and will develop the national MNM market supporting Umbra Medical with the development of its pipeline of proprietary MNM products.
Porto’s facility – the first and only laboratory authorised to produce FluoroDeoxyGlucose (FDG), in Portugal – is located inside the Institutocuf de Diagnóstico e Tratamento (ICUF), a highly equipped medical centre that uses the PET tracers produced in the laboratory, and is inserted in the existing framework agreement between AAA and GE Healthcare to manufacture GE’s PET Proprietary Tracers, announced in early October 2011.
The facility in Murcia, the second one in Spain after the site in Zaragoza, will supply all the regional hospitals in the south of the Country with FDG and other PET products for 15 years following its completion.
Stefano Buono, Chief Executive Officer of AAA, commented: “AAA has made significant progress in its strategy to expand its European PET manufacturing network. Our ambition is to have at least 21 European laboratories in three years time. We believe that at least seven of the 20 new F-18 proprietary products currently in company sponsored clinical studies will reach the market over the next four to five years and will need to be produced in Europe. Our specialist expertise and extensive network of laboratories means we are well placed to manufacture these molecules for both existing and new partners.”