Survey of radiopharmaceutical development

Development of nuclear medicine depends on the development of radiopharmaceuticals and nuclear medicine instruments. Radiopharmaceuticals are the agents for diagnosis or therapy in nuclear medicine. The main nuclide for clinical diagnosis is reactor-produced metastable technetium-99 (99Tcm). Cyclotron-produced nuclides 201Tl, 67Ga, 111In, 123I and short lived positron emitting nuclides 11C, 13N, 15O, 18F are important, too. A few radiopharmaceuticals with higher-energy beta-emitting radionuclides such as 90Y, 153Sm, 180Re, etc. are sometimes used for therapy purposes. The paper consists of three parts: (1) a brief history of radiopharmaceutical development. (2) present status and progress of radiopharmaceutical research at home and abroad and (3) some suggestions for the development of radiopharmaceuticals in China