Mission

The mission is to produce radiopharmaceuticals for the realization of
diagnostics and therapy in Nuclear Medicine,
contributing to the improvement of the quality of life of patients.

The use of radioisotopes in medicine is certainly one of the most important social uses of Nuclear Energy. IPEN, and more particularly the Radiopharmacy Center, has a special place on the history of Nuclear Medicine in Brazil. The production of radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals for use in Nuclear Medicine started in the late 50's at IPEN. Due to the federal monopoly of the radioisotope production in Brazil, only the Institutes that belong to CNEN can produce them, and the production at IPEN represents nearly 98% of the total demand. There has been a significant increase in the demand of these products over the years, and it is expected that more than 2,600,000 will be treated or performed diagnostics with IPEN products by 2005. Between 2002 and 2004 the increase in the demand of these products was about 30%, and nowadays this Center has 30 products in its catalogue. The Center has three divisions: Production, Quality Assurance and Research and Development. The Production Division carries out the routine production of primary radioisotopes, the labeling of molecules with these radioisotopes and the preparation of lyophilized kits for labeling with 99mTc. The Quality Assurance Division is responsible for the procedures of quality control of the products and also for all the quality system of the Center. The Research and Development Division looks for new methods of production and also new radiopharmaceuticals that are important for the development of Nuclear Medicine in Brazil.

The highlights of this period were the nationalization of the production of 67Ga(total) and 131I (partial), that allows an important economy in importation of the raw materials every year; the validation of the production processes of 201Tl and the 99Mo-99mTc gel generator; the increase of the production and distribution of 18F-FDG, that represents a huge advance in the diagnostics procedures available for the society in Brazil and the consolidation of the philosophy of the ISO-9001:2000 certificate. The role and importance of the Radiopharmacy Center in the development of the Nuclear Medicine in Brazil is greatly increasing every passing year. The number of products available, the nationalization efforts and the modernization of the methods and installations brought a new picture in this field of application, very well represented by the impact of the availability of the short half-life radionuclide 18F, in the radiopharmaceutical form of 18F-FDG, for São Paulo and cities nearby.

Constancia Pagano Gonçalves da Silva
Manager

R&D activities

• Research and development of methods for labelling compounds with radioisotopes
• Research and development of methods for primary radioisotope production
• Research and development of methods for preparation of lyophilized kits for labelling with 99mTC

Products and Services

• Production of labeled compounds
• Production of lyophilized kits for labelling with 99mTC
• Production of primary radioisotopes
• Quality control and assurance of radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals

• Publication list