Study on Sustainable and Resilient Supply of Medical Radioisotopes in the EU
Diagnostic radionuclides
In the last decades, nuclear medicine imaging has been increasingly used thanks to the progress of the equipments and the radionuclides drugs. Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), produced in research reactors is used to generate Technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most frequently used radionuclide for imaging purpose. After a large shortage in the year 2009, concerns raised on securing its supply chain. Past studies by EC and OECD/NEA mainly focused on the front-end of the supply chain. This study aims at assessing among EU Member States the supply chain’s back-end specificities: the good practices and differences in using Mo-99/Tc-99m, and the impact of Health systems reimbursement mechanisms. The number and types of procedures using Tc-99m are difficult to assess, due to a lack of reliable and homogeneous EU-wide database. Tc-99m is essentially used in heart and cancer imaging in EU, overall use reaching 7 to 10 million procedures per year. Tc-99m cost tends to remain marginal in Western Europe nuclear medicine centres, giving no large incentive to optimize its use. In the vast majority of Member States, the Tc-99m is not separately reimbursed but is included in the total price paid for the imaging procedure, and only represent a few percent of the total price.Despite being the most used radionuclide, Mo-99/Tc-99m cost is not a concern for Health Authorities, this should not change in the next years. Their attention being currently focused on PET and other imaging technologies.
MARIO Nicolas;
KOLMAYER Andre;
TURQUET G;
GOULART DE MEDEIROS Margarida;
JOERGER Anaîs;
2022-03-17
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC128401
978-92-76-49317-4 (online),
OP KJ-09-22-113-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128401,
10.2760/911131 (online),
Additional supporting files
| File name | Description | File type | |
|---|
