TEHRAN -- A senior official with Iran’s nuclear agency announced that the country has turned into the biggest producer of diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals across the region.
The Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI)’s Deputy Head of Nuclear Planning and Strategic Supervision Muhammad Ghannadi made the remarks in a radio interview.
Diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals, he noted, are useful in diagnosing a great range of diseases such as brain hemorrhage, various types of cancer, osteoporosis, and cardiac conditions.
“Each year, at least one million Iranian patients use diagnostic radiopharmaceuticals such as Technetium-99m...and helps diagnose 85 percent of the diseases,” he stated.
The AEOI official identified FDG (fluorodeoxyglucose) as yet another type of diagnostic radioactive drug that is domestically produced and facilitates diagnosis of such cerebral malfunctions as brain hemorrhage and tumors. Upon application, he said, the medicine in question helps PET (positron emission tomography) scan imaging devices obtain clearer images of the afflicted areas of the brain.
Elsewhere in his remarks, Ghannadi hailed that the country had managed to produce the Iodine-131 radiopharmaceutical that is used for the treatment of thyroid cancer.
He also said Iran has succeeded to produce other types of radioactive drugs such as the type that helps reduce orthopedic pain in patients, who are in the last stages of cancer.
The Islamic Republic also enjoys a “favorable position” as far as exporting pharmaceuticals is concerned, he said.
“We are currently engaged in the process of researching the production of radiopharmaceuticals that are being simultaneously produced on the global level,” Ghannadi said.