EKO Diagnostics to provide PET biomarkers to Siemens in Kolkata

Siemens today signed a collaborative agreement with Kolkata-based EKO Diagnostic Private Limited (EDPL), to set-up a cyclotron facility to manufacture positron emission tomography (PET) biomarkers.

EKO Diagnostic Private Limited is one of the premier medical centres in India founded by Dr. S K Sharma, an eminent Radiologist and Nuclear Medicine specialist of the country.

This first-of-its-kind facility in eastern India will produce fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) and other biomarkers used along with PET.CT scanners. These biomarkers help to diagnose and stage diseases like cancer, cardiac and certain neurology disorders.

This facility will be designed to support Siemens Eclipse-HP cyclotrons to enhance production reliability and PET biomarker capacity. The facility will be operated by Siemens with a support from PETNET Solutions, Inc, a fully-owned subsidiary of Siemens Healthcare, which manufactures high quality PET biomarkers.

Since PET biomarkers like FDG have a shelf life of less than 12 hours, due to the half life of the cyclotron produced isotopes, they need to be produced locally and distributed faster and efficiently.

The new cyclotron facility will assure reliable delivery of biomarkers and will vastly increase their availability, enabling more patients to have access to the world-class imaging facility using PET.CT. For cancer patients, this will allow for earlier lesion detection, staging and diagnosis of cancers, which is essential for treatment and disease management.