The Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) will host a webinar on 18 November 2019 to present findings from a new report on the supply of medical radioisotopes, jointly produced with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Health Committee.
Technetium-99m (Tc-99m) is the most commonly used medical radioisotope, essential for 85% of the nuclear medicine diagnostic scans performed worldwide, or around 30 million patient examinations every year. There are no comparable substitutes available for diagnoses of various cancers, such as breast, melanoma and head/neck cancer, and for a range of diagnostics in children, in particular paediatric bone and renal scans.
Unfortunately, the global supply of Tc-99m is not technically and economically robust, and the existing supply-chain continues to experience chronic shortages. This new study analyses the current market structure and identifies barriers for the implementation of full cost recovery.
Join William D. Magwood, IV, Director General of the NEA, Mark Pearson, Deputy Director of Employment, Labour and Social Affairs at the OECD, Jan Horst Keppler, Senior Economist at the NEA, and Martin Wenzl, Health Policy Analyst at the OECD, to hear the key findings of this new joint report.
To participate in the webinar, interested professionals, journalists and members of the public are invited to register online in advance. If you would like to be able to submit questions before or during the webinar, please send them via Twitter @OECD_NEA or e-mail to press@oecd‑nea.org.
Related links:
Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA)
OECD Health
NEA High-level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR)
Joint Declaration on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes
2018 Medical Isotope Demand and Capacity Projection for the 2018-2023 Period
Results from the Third Self-assessment of the Global 99Mo/99mTc Supply Chain
