Europe’s medical radionuclide and radiopharmaceutical supply chain is vulnerable due to limited production facilities and distribution challenges and must be strengthened to maximise its full potential, a position paper from the European Nuclear Society’s (ENS) High Scientific Council (HSC) has found.

The report said that Europe was at the forefront of the development of radiopharmaceutical innovations which target diseases at the molecular level, but it made recommendations to help the industry meet technological, logistical, regulatory and safety challenges.

The HSC is a scientific body of independent experts which advises the Brussels-based ENS on nuclear developments as well as acting as a think-tank for science and technology.

In its paper, the HSC said the radionuclide and radiopharmaceutical supply chain was inherently complex and fragile, relying on a limited number of production facilities and nuclear research reactors and cyclotrons, many of which were ageing and operating close to capacity.