Rosatom and Philips to Develop Nuclear Medicine in Russia
OREANDA-NEWS. June 27, 2011. Rosatom State Corporation and Philips Electronics announced about the beginning of the collaboration with the purpose of nuclear medicine in Russia complex development.
The nuclear medicine is the most accurate technology of oncological diseases diagnostics at early stages. Under the conditions of the growing cancer morbidity in Russia the partnership appears to be an important step in the health improvement of the country population.
The companies are planning to work jointly in four branches, among them in production of precise diagnostics equipment on the basis of nuclear medicine – OFEKT (single-photon emission computed tomography), OFEKT-KT (combined with computer tomography), PET-KT (positron emission tomography combined with KT). At that for the first time in Russia the international manufacturer passes the right of the production of a certain OFEKT-KT model over to a local partner on exclusive terms, limiting its output by other production sites of the world. The equipment will be sold in Russia and other CIS countries under a common brand.
The second important component of the collaboration are cooperative scientific and research developments (R&D), among them clinical research, the component base development and also the improvement of the produced output. The Philips’ disposal to the local partner of unique know-how on the localized production manufacture and maintenance will become one more area of collaboration. The creation of the first Russian manufacturer and supplier of a complex PET solution for Russian and world market will become the resulting component of the partnership.
“The aim of our partnership is to create a full-fledged branch of nuclear medicine in Russia. The collaboration implies to be of full-scale character and will spin up with every year. According to the program, projected by the Russian Federation Government, we are keen on making not less than 50% of Russian equipment to be produced on the territory of Russia. In the course of its realization the initiative will help create the stimuli and conditions for the development of an entire industry of highly technological medical equipment and various organizations and suppliers will be involved. Finally we hope that already in the near future the population will undergo medical examination at Russian equipment, which at least won’t be inferior to the best world analogues”, Rosatom State Corporation Director Sergey Kiriyenko says.
In the context of native economy modernization, the localization of nuclear medicine production will contribute to reduction of the country’s dependence on the import of medical equipment, which according to different estimates is equal to 81%. Proposing to the health system the decisions, available and adapted to the local demands, the partnership aims to contribute to the modernization of medical infrastructure in Russian medical establishments.
At present the Russian population demand in PET-diagnostics is satisfied less than by 1–5%. Nowadays there are only 7 PET centres in Russia (for comparison with the USA, where there are over 2000), at that all of them are located in Moscow and St. Petersburg, though this modern method of radioisotope diagnostics should be available for all the Russian districts. According to the specialists’ estimations, not less than 140 PET centres should be constructed.
PET is the newest methods of medical visualization or radioisotope test operation. The basic field of their application is oncology, the share of which is equal to about 80–90% of all the researches. PET-scanner allows clinicians define cancer at its “zero” stage, when the tumor tissue has not yet changed its structure. This radically reduces the state expenses on the treatment of oncological patients. The actuality of the researches of the kind in Russia is especially great due to the oncological situation, when cancer has become the second cause of the population deaths in number. In the course of the last ten years the level of deaths of oncological diseases has grown up to 13.8% and now there are about 2.7 mln of cancer patients”, Steve Rusovsky, Royal Philips Electronics Executive Vice-President, General Director of Philips health service.
Within the framework of the planned collaboration the infrastructure, technological basis and medical equipment production process will be developed and carried out by Rosatom State Corporation. From its party, Philips will pass all the necessary technological developments on license agreements over to Rosatom. Besides, Philips experts will conduct the training of Russian specialists and engineers, engaged into the technological equipment production.
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