On June 24, Almazov Centre hosted a roundtable meeting where experts discussed radiotheranostics as an important part of Russian healthcare. The meeting took place in partnership with RUSNANO JSC and the Medscan Group of Companies.
The discussion was moderated by Director General of Almazov Centre, Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Evgeny Shlyakhto and Senior Managing Director of RUSNANO Management Company Ivan Ozhgikhin.
Evgeny Shlyakhto emphasized that there is a demand in Russia for interdisciplinary cooperation that can bring about new drugs and treatments and expressed hope that following this discussion a roadmap will be developed, which can be announced and presented at the top level.
Ivan Ozhgikhin expressed confidence that the possibilities of modern health care have greatly improved with the advent of radiotheranostics.
“As a technology investor, RUSNANO sees huge potential in this area. It allows not only to improve the quality of care provided to patients and, thereby, extend, and in some cases save their lives, but also to create a new high-tech industry in the country with its own scientific and educational school,” stressed Ivan Ozhgikhin.
In his welcome address to the participants, Dmitry Pavlyukov, Deputy Head of the Federal Service for Surveillance in Healthcare, emphasized that the development of medical equipment in nuclear medicine should be carried out jointly with national medical research centres and leading scientific organizations in order to quickly bring new products to the market.
Chief Researcher of the Research Department of Nuclear Medicine and Theranostics, Head of the Department of Nuclear Medicine and Radiation Technologies with the Clinic of the Medical Education Institute Prof. Daria Ryzhkova agreed with the need to revive technologies that are associated not only with diagnostics in oncology (imaging of the heart, lungs, kidneys and brain), but at the same time drew the attention of colleagues to the newly emerging area of theranostics.
The participants of the meeting discussed such topics as the current state, problems and prospects of nuclear cardiology and theranostics in Russia; nuclear medicine in pediatric cardiology; challenges of the introduction of new radiopharmaceuticals in the existing medical settings; radiation safety during SPECT studies; problems and prospects for the use of medical isotopes for radionuclide therapy.
The round table also featured a presentation of the domestic radiopharmaceutical market by Maxim Kushnarev, CEO of Isotope.