NEW YORK – GE HealthCare said Monday that it has joined the EU's new theranostic consortium Thera4Care.
The consortium launched this week with €25.3 million ($27.8 million) in EU funding and a goal to improve access to theranostics across Europe. The consortium involves 29 partners from academia, industry, and patient advocacy groups alike.
The partners aim to expand the indications eligible for radiopharmaceuticals and to bring theranostics to community medical centers throughout Europe, where most cancer patients receive care.
To accomplish this, Thera4Care is focused on establishing standardized and scalable methods for producing and delivering the isotopes used in theranostics. The project is initially centered on prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, and sarcoma.
GE HealthCare will contribute its theranostic technology to advance this effort, including its cyclotrons and PET and SPECT imaging scanners. Specifically, the firm said it will expand the EU's network of good manufacturing practice (GMP)-approved copper-producing isotope sites using standardized and reproducible methods; develop new SPECT-CT imaging technologies that work with various alpha-emitting isotopes; and use artificial intelligence to build new theranostic clinical decision support tools and personalize dosimetry for patients.