【Health and Welfare News】 The Ministry of Science and ICT (Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Science and ICT Baek Baek-hoon, hereinafter referred to as ‘MSIT’) and the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (President Joo Han-gyu, hereinafter referred to as ‘Atomic Energy Research Institute’) announced that the Atomic Energy Research Institute’s Advanced Radiation Research Institute (Director Jeong Byeong-yeop) has secured all of the core element technologies for the gallium-68 generator through support from the Ministry of Science and ICT, opening the possibility of domestically producing radiopharmaceuticals for diagnosing incurable cancers. revealed.
Gallium-68, a radioactive isotope, emits positrons as it decays and is used in positron tomography (PET) to diagnose incurable cancers such as prostate cancer and neuroendocrine cancer. Gallium-68 has a short half-life (68 minutes) and is difficult to store on its own, so a stable supply of gallium-68 generators is essential for use in patient treatment. However, it has been difficult to secure key technologies domestically, so the company has relied entirely on imported products.
The key element technologies of the gallium-68 generator are ▲ production technology for germanium-68, a raw material, and ▲ adsorption material technology that adsorbs germanium-68 well and separates and elutes gallium-68. The Advanced Radiation Research Institute has already secured germanium-68 production technology based on a 30 MeV circular particle accelerator (cyclotron) through a support project from the Ministry of Science and ICT, and has now succeeded in developing adsorption materials and is equipped with all gallium-68 generator element technologies.
The research team (Director Park Jeong-hoon of the Advanced Radiation Research Institute’s Cyclotron Application Research Department) produced micro-sized particles by mixing the natural material chitosan and the metal oxide titanium precursor and developed a new adsorption material with improved bonding between particles by heat treatment.
As a result of the evaluation, the gallium-68 elution efficiency of the developed material was approximately 70%, which was similar to that of products leading the world market, and it was found that radiopharmaceuticals for 6 patients could be stably produced with one elution. In particular, the material developed this time is expected to significantly increase operational efficiency in medical settings by securing durability that can be used for about a year, twice as long as foreign products.
In addition, the research team used gallium-68 eluted from the newly developed material to conduct non-clinical experiments on radiopharmaceuticals for prostate cancer diagnosis in collaboration with the Department of Nuclear Medicine at Seoul National University Bundang Hospital, and successfully verified the effectiveness of the core material of the gallium-68 generator by obtaining tumor images. The technology has been registered for domestic and foreign patents, and technology transfer to domestic companies developing radiopharmaceuticals is planned in the future.
This achievement is expected to greatly contribute to guaranteeing the public’s right to health in that it has laid the foundation for the local production of gallium-68 radiopharmaceuticals, which show excellent performance in diagnosing incurable cancer. In addition, it is expected to serve as an opportunity to reduce the dependence of radiopharmaceutical technology on foreign countries and strengthen the competitiveness of domestic nuclear and medical convergence technology.
Director Park Jeong-hoon said, “Through the development of this core material, we have secured all the element technologies necessary to develop a gallium-68 generator based on a circular particle accelerator (cyclotron).” He added, “If we mass-produce germanium-68, the raw material, by upgrading the autonomous operation and manufacturing system that applies artificial intelligence to the circular particle accelerator (cyclotron) in the future, we will be able to stably meet domestic demand.”
The Ministry of Science and ICT plans to continue to support radiopharmaceutical core technology research and development and industrial linkage through follow-up project planning that will inherit the results of the ‘Radioisotope Industry Promotion and Advanced Technology Support Project’, which will end this year, with the goal of localizing radiopharmaceuticals essential for the diagnosis and treatment of rare and incurable cancers.
Oh Dae-hyun, Director of Future Strategic Technology Policy at the Ministry of Science and ICT, said, “This achievement is an example that shows that the entire cycle, from the production of radioisotopes to the development of radiopharmaceuticals, and the diagnosis and treatment of rare and incurable cancer patients, can be done with domestic technology.” He added, “We will continue to support patients with rare and incurable cancers so that they can receive stable treatment in Korea and related technologies can be transferred to the industry to be competitive in overseas markets.”
date: 2026-02-14 09:24:00
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