Ensuring quality while going local: IAEA helps Cuba produce radiopharmaceuticals

Cancer and cardiovascular disease are health conditions Cuba will now be able to more readily diagnose and treat thanks to its newly built facility for producing key radiopharmaceuticals. Nuclear medicine requires a constant and reliable supply of these radioactive drugs, prepared according to what the industry calls good manufacturing practices (GMP), and there have so far been limitations in getting them to the island nation. "Through our work with the IAEA, we now have a dedicated GMP compliant facility and the expertise to meet most of our national needs for diagnostic and therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals for helping patients," said René Leyva Montaña, Director of Production at the Isotope Centre (CENTIS), Cuba's centre dedicated to radiopharmaceutical production.