Starting next year, Kazakhstan will begin producing a radiopharmaceutical for diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease at the Institute of Nuclear Physics in Almaty. The technological platform is ready, and the drug is currently undergoing refinement and registration. Aigul Saduakassova, Head of the Nuclear Medicine Center at the Medical Center Hospital of the President’s Affairs Administration, noted that the Center uses 10 radiopharmaceuticals for cancer diagnostics, seven of which are produced at its own cyclotron-production facility. Since last year, the 11th drug in the lineup, samarium oxabifor, has been used to treat bone metastases. Currently imported from Uzbekistan, it will also be produced in Kazakhstan in the future. This therapy relieves pain, slows metastasis progression, and significantly improves the quality of life for cancer patients. Nine patients have already undergone treatment with this new method, and their number is growing. According to the Nuclear Medicine Center, more than 10,000 patients receive PET/CT diagnostics annually under Kazakhstan’s guaranteed free medical care program.
«Samarium is unique because, when it
targets bone metastases, it does not harm healthy tissues but acts locally,
accumulating in damaged bone or, in other words, where metastatic tumors are
present. We introduced this method last year and continue to use it this year.
Joint work is underway with the Ministry of Health to establish a tariff for the
treatment under the guaranteed free medical care program,»
said Aigul Saduakassova, Head of the Nuclear Medicine Center at the Medical
Center Hospital of the President’s Affairs Administration of the Republic of
Kazakhstan.
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