CUH has its own state-of-the-art radiopharmacy unit, which opened in 2009.
Operating under an MHRA Manufacturer’s ‘Specials’ licence, the radiopharmacy provides comprehensive radiopharmaceutical services. It is located within the nuclear medicine department on Level 3 of the hospital. Primarily this is where Tc99m tracers for clinical use are produced. These are used in our own hospital, six other hospitals in the region and four private veterinary practices. The facility includes Gallium-68 (PET) radiopharmaceutical production, blood-labelling suites and a quality control laboratory.
The radiopharmacy unit has long-standing and close links with Cambridge University, participating in the research and development of radiopharmaceuticals. As part of this collaboration, within the radiopharmacy, there is a separate C-13 GMP clean room for the assembly of [13C] Pyruvic Acid SPIN Lab Pharmacy Kits used for functional MRI imaging. The radiopharmacy unit also supports research trials and studies in PET-CT, general nuclear medicine and radionuclide therapy.
The radiopharmacy team ensures that the unit meets stringent regulatory obligations with respect to good manufacturing practices (GMP) as well as radiation safety.
In addition the radiopharmacy unit is involved in the training and support, both nationally and internationally, of all grades of multidisciplinary staff in radiopharmacy, clinical nuclear medicine and medical physics. This includes providing experience for international students, Post-doctoral research and research fellows, along with medical physics and nuclear medicine trainees.