AREVA Med has launched its Maurice Tubiana facility located at Bessines-sur-Gartempe, France, following administrative authorizations and completing technical testing. The facility began production to extract and purify lead-212 for medical use.
 
Lead-212 is a rare metal used in the development of treatments for certain cancers that do not respond to other conventional methods. Nuclear medicine is dependent on the availability of high purity isotopes and the production at the Maurice Tubiana facility will provide sufficient amounts of high-purity lead 212 for clinical development. Lead-212 is currently being used in an AREVA Med Phase I trial at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
 
Patrick Bourdet, chief executive officer of AREVA Med, said, “This facility, completed thanks to AREVA’s expertise in radiochemistry and nuclear facility design and the support of our partners, confirms AREVA Med’s industrial development. This will allow us to accelerate the development of alpha radio-immunotherapy using lead-212.”