by
Carol Ko, Staff Writer | April 30, 2013
From the April 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine
“Radiopharmaceuticals is another sector with a lot of potential,” Sharma adds. “What will happen in the future will depend on the decision for Amyvid — that will be watched closely going forward.” (Last month in our online news, we covered the full story on Amyvid extensively. You can read the article
here.
Target Practice
Ad Statistics
Times Displayed: 47491
Times Visited: 1444 MIT labs, experts in Multi-Vendor component level repair of: MRI Coils, RF amplifiers, Gradient Amplifiers Contrast Media Injectors. System repairs, sub-assembly repairs, component level repairs, refurbish/calibrate. info@mitlabsusa.com/+1 (305) 470-8013
Experts also have high hopes that sophisticated advances in contrast for use with MRI will drive future market growth. This new technology adds special molecules to imaging agents that help them adhere to specific molecular structures. Though there are currently no MRI agents on the market, several are currently being refined and tested in clinical labs.
For example, one promising molecular MRI contrast agent successfully tested on animals and humans is engineered to attach to a protein found in atherosclerosis plaque. If this product is brought to market, it may one day aid doctors in heart disease diagnosis and prevention — still the number one cause of death in the U.S.
Meanwhile, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania are in the process of developing a tumor-targeting MRI contrast agent with nanoparticles coated in glycol chitosan, a water-soluble polymer sensitive to acid. The particles are drawn to the lactic acid build-up around tumors, making them visually stand out from healthy parts of the body during a scan.
In other MRI contrast news, researchers are looking into new contrast agents that reduce or altogether eliminate the onset of nephrotoxic systemic fibrosis, a serious disease associated with MRI contrast.
By all accounts, side effects such as NSF are exceedingly rare, and its risks only apply to people who already suffer from severe kidney failure. Nevertheless, ongoing concerns around invasive imaging, radiation dose and other side effects are putting pressure on researchers to minimize the potential dangers associated with contrast. And in the wake of health care’s massive push toward cost-cutting, many experts are urging for more caution around imaging tests in general.
“We need to think carefully about whether or not we should be imaging patients in a given case. If we do, then we need to be circumspect about the type of agent we use,” says Dr. Paul Finn, chief of diagnostic cardiovascular imaging at UCLA.
These issues are driving the development and release of new products like Gadovist, a macrocyclical agent that received FDA approval. in 2011. “This is probably the biggest news in the MRI contrast sector right now,” says Peter Seidensticker, vice president of strategic marketing in CT/X-ray at Bayer, the maker of Gadovist.
