Reinforcing its commitment to researchers and clinicians, GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) is showcasing a comprehensive molecular imaging portfolio—encompassing tracer development, pre-clinical imaging and highly advanced imaging equipment— to provide insight into the origins of disease, at the World Molecular Imaging Congress (WMIC), Booth #212, September 8 through 11 in Kyoto, Japan.
“We are committed to providing researchers with the ability to produce tracers, one touch point services, and imaging equipment to discover and understand disease from the beginning.”
"For more than 80 years, GE Healthcare has been a leader in integrating developments in imaging technologies and molecular imaging agents with applications for drug development and clinical translation," said Terri Bresenham, vice president and general manager of GE Healthcare's Molecular Imaging business. "We are committed to providing researchers with the ability to produce tracers, one touch point services, and imaging equipment to discover and understand disease from the beginning."
"Molecular Imaging is reshaping the world of healthcare and creating a revolution in drug development," said Dr. Dae Hyuk Moon, the president of the Korean Society of Molecular Imaging. "We believe the future of patient care will dramatically improve with molecular medicine as molecular biology based therapies are expected to contribute to the optimal utilization of new therapeutic approaches and pharmaceutical development. Molecular Imaging fits with the universal goal of better patient care around the world."
Pre-clinical Imaging
GE Healthcare introduces a new tri-modality pre-clinical imaging system called the Triumph™ ll at WMIC 2010.
The solid state digital imaging system has been upgraded to offer enhanced image quality, and quantitative capabilities, a wider bore size to fit larger animals, higher PET sensitivity, and new SPECT collimators for improved resolution and sensitivity.
Among the advancements is a proprietary fully 3D PET reconstruction algorithm that delivers high quality PET images that are acquired nearly 20 times faster than other systems implementing more conventional methods. This PET technology allows a single system to produce in excess of 20 full body processed scans daily; enabling researchers to review the resulting high quality PET images nearly instantaneously and boost their workflow efficiency. The advanced features of the new Triumph ll are designed to empower researchers to accelerate biomedical discovery and imaging agent development with greater productivity and high quality results.
GE Healthcare is also showcasing eXplore™ speCZT/CT120, an integrated SPECT/CT system. Focusing on high throughput and rapid dynamic imaging, eXplore speCZT, the world's first full-ring, solid-state detector small animal SPECT, and the CT120 X-ray CT system are now combined for seamless dual-modality imaging and fusion. The combined system is equipped with GE Healthcare's new SPECT/CT Attenuation Correction feature providing improved quantitative accuracy in measuring SPECT tracer uptake. The SPECT system utilizes a cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) detector with high-energy resolution to enable dual or triple radionuclide imaging, while eXplore CT120 is equipped with a high power x-ray tube that enables cardiac gating in CT for demanding cardiac molecular imaging experiments as well as high image quality with reduced scan time and dose.
PET Radiopharmacy
Providing biomedical researchers with greater access to solutions for PET imaging agent development, GE Healthcare is Introducing TRACERcenter for Pre-Clinical Imaging, combining site planning, high capacity Cyclotrons, an infrastructure platform, and portfolio of qualified reagents to start up,and run an efficient and powerful pre-clinical imaging center.
A recent addition to the TRACERcenter GMP™ platform of advanced instrumentation, comprehensive documentation and GMP training and consulting services, TRACERcenter 710S™ is a cost effective, upgradeable solution for customers establishing their own infrastructure platform for radiotracer research, production or distribution. The TRACERcenter 710S produces tracers for oncology, and offers customers tracer production possibilities with upgrade packages for neurology and cardiology.
New to WMIC 2010 is an enhanced version of TRACERlab™ FX FN, a widely used generic platform for 18F tracers in particular for researchers. The new product, TRACERlab™ FX N Pro, will be equipped with a second reactor thereby offering even more versatility. The new product will be available later this year.
GE Healthcare is also announcing the expansion of its FASTlab™ platform. FASTlab is a high productivity platform to synthesize PET radiopharmaceuticals for consistent pharmaceutical quality and high yield. In addition to the existing cassettes for 18F-FDG and 18F-NaF, GE Healthcare is introducing cassettes for 18F-FLT and 18F-FMISO in 2011. In addition, the company is offering an alternative FDG cassette that will utilize the widely used synthesis method of the TRACERlab MX system.
Building upon GE Healthcare's legacy in radiopharmaceuticals and chemistry, PETtrace 880™ joins the company's PETtrace family of cyclotrons. The PETtrace 880 offers greater power and record reliability, combined with increased production capacity and tracer portfolio, allowing customers to establish, upgrade and operate their own comprehensive research or clinical PET tracer production center with confidence.
PET/CT
Featured at WMIC 2010 is the Discovery™ PET/CT 690, a premier molecular imaging tool designed to go beyond the needs of the current clinical practice and explore the future applications of PET/CT imaging. The Discovery PET/CT 690's unique timing resolution technology enables time of flight reconstruction technique, which combined with speed in workflow and protocol flexibility, helps researchers forge new frontiers in clinical techniques, drug discovery and motion management. The Discovery PET/CT 690 includes the exclusive IBM BladeCenter™, where users have the ability to reconstruct PET images in minutes instead of hours, potentially improving workflow of detailed studies. GE Healthcare's breakthrough VUE Point FX, the next generation in high definition reconstruction, has the potential to improve small lesion detection and image quality when coupled with MotionFree™ techniques, especially in areas affected by patient motion.
Development of novel tracers
GE Healthcare Medical Diagnostics is pursuing clinical development of several new PET and SPECT chemical entities during 2010, and has more compounds at an earlier stage of preclinical development. At its labs and in collaboration with academic groups globally, GE Healthcare is committed to ensuring Molecular Imaging plays a major role in enabling confident medical decisions.
GE Workshops
PET Tracer Research and Pre-Clinical Molecular Imaging
Thursday, September 9, 2010, 5:40 - 7:10 pm
Room B-1
To understand disease from the beginning, molecular imaging requires the convergence of imaging agents, imaging equipment, pre-clinical and clinical translations. In this session, researchers from the academic community and GE Healthcare will present and discuss progress in development and validation of new PET tracers, including pre-clinical imaging and clinical translations, and explore core emerging technologies and applications enabled by GE Healthcare's molecular imaging systems.
PET cGMP and Academic clinical trials: the future is now...
Friday, September 10, 2010, 5:40—7:10 pm
Room D
The need to understand and implement cGMP compliance is growing with each day as regulations tighten and standardize globally in radiopharmaceutical production.
In this workshop GE Healthcare will share the repercussions, achievements of compliance in academic PET production centers, and the resources and pathways available to achieve cGMP compliance. We will focus on reviewing (1) the regulations and the role of guidance in helping regulated entities obtain compliance, (2) the milestones, processes, and timeline for compliance (upgrade, file, ongoing operation, review, inspection, authorized operation, subsequent inspection schedule, and (3) the potential impact of getting it wrong.
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