IBA Launches versatile high-energy new Cyclotron
IBA leverages 35 years of experience and innovation in the new Cyclone® IKON with enhanced availability of theranostic radiopharmaceuticals and reduced radiopharmacy footprint
Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium, 10 June 2021 - IBA (Ion Beam Applications S.A., EURONEXT), the world's leading provider of solutions for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer, today launches its new high energy and high-capacity cyclotron, the Cyclone® IKON, which offers the largest energy spectrum for PET and SPECT isotopes from 13 MeV to 30 MeV. The Cyclone® IKON was showcased during a virtual live event and the replay can be watched here.
Currently, there are still a large number of patients for whom cancer treatment fails, despite major scientific advances. Nuclear medicine is emerging as a relevant modality to address this gap by extending overall survival and quality of life for cancer patients. Theranostics and targeted therapies allow the administration of radiation directly to the targeted cells, with minimal toxic side effects to surrounding healthy cells, unlike traditional modalities. The growing number of clinical trials (200+) and ongoing increase of new radiotherapeutic molecule developments support the great potential of radioligand therapy.
“To enable this revolution, we must enhance the availability of novel isotopes and boost their production capacity. In its role, the cyclotron must be a reliable and sustainable production source of isotopes for the radiopharmaceutical industry and this is particularly the case for Germanium-68 (used for Germanium-68/Gallium-68 generators), Iodine-123 and other radioisotopes such as Copper-64, for which the demand has been consistently expanding year after year.” Bruno Scutnaire, Vice-President of IBA's RadioPharma Solutions Division commented.
To address these new market needs, IBA has redesigned its previous model, Cyclone® 30 MeV, and created a next generation system, the Cyclone® IKON. It is more compact and versatile than ever and is capable of working over a large energy span (13 to 30MeV) with full current capacity to enable the large-scale and high-purity production of emerging PET, SPECT and “parent” isotopes.
The first two units of the Cyclone® IKON have already been acquired by two leading companies in radiopharmaceuticals production: The Institute of Radioelements (IRE) in Belgium and Curium Pharma in St Louis, USA. Commissioning is scheduled for 2023.
Renaud Dehareng, CEO of Curium Pharma said: “IBA has been a trusted partner of Curium for a long time. We selected IBA for its globally recognized expertise and due to the outstanding capabilities and reliability of the Cyclotron.”
We selected IBA because of the reliability of its equipment. It has the most compact and efficient high energy cyclotron on the market." said Erich Kollegger, CEO of IRE.