APUI passes 100th patient dose milestone

On November 8, 2022, a patient in a clinical trial led by the ICO received a dose of Cu-ATSM produced that day at Arronax. He/she is the 101st patient to benefit from a radiopharmaceutical developed by the team of the Annex of the internal use pharmacy of the Nantes University Hospital called APUI.

Since its commissioning at GIP ARRONAX in 2018, the APUI has produced more than 100 doses for patients included in various clinical trials and followed in Nantes’ nuclear medicine departments at the Institut de Cancérologie de l’Ouest (ICO) or Nantes University Hospital (CHU de Nantes). “This represents two injections per month, either for diagnostic imaging or for therapy, says Mickaël Bourgeois, radiopharmacist at the APUI.Without the Covid pandemic, which forced us to reduce our activity, we would have produced even more doses.”

Within GIP ARRONAX, this achievement for the benefit of patients is the result of a collective effort involving also the production, quality control, transport and radiation protection departments

The Arronax in-house radiopharmacy is authorized by the local Regional Health Agency (ARS Pays de la Loire) for the preparation of radiopharmaceutical compounds dedicated to clinical trials in nuclear medicine, and by the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) for the distribution of radiopharmaceuticals dedicated to clinical trials in nuclear medicine. The team is composed of 2 radiopharmacists, 3 radiochemical engineers and several radiochemical technicians.

A new production line will open in early 2023 at GIP ARRONAX to increase APUI’s clinical dose production capacity.

Contact : Mickaël Bourgeois