OREANDA-NEWS Jordan is open to cooperation with the Russian Federation in the field of nuclear medicine, including joint production of medicines with Rosatom, head of the Jordan Atomic Energy Commission (JAEC) Khaled Toukan told RIA Novosti.

"To be honest, we want to focus on large-scale things, such as nuclear power plants, but we are open to cooperation in the field of nuclear medicine… We turned to Rosatom about cooperation (in this area - ed.)," Tukan said.
Jordan has a successful experience in the production of radiopharmaceuticals together with European companies, said the head of JAEC. As an example, he cited the manufacture of a drug based on holmium. The Dutch company supplies the substance to Jordan, where it is irradiated at the reactor and returned to the Dutch for the sale of the finished drug in the Middle East market.

"We have informed Rosatom that we are fully ready to cooperate with them as well as with European companies. They called for the joint production of lutetium. We said we were ready," Tukan said.

"Rosatom has this drug, they want to distribute it in the Middle East. We informed them that there is a reactor so that they supply lutetium to Jordan, and we irradiate it," he said, adding that the issue of cooperation in this area is under preliminary discussion.

Lutetium-177 is one of the most promising radionuclides serving as the basis for the production of innovative radiopharmaceuticals. According to the estimates of scientists leading the development of advanced medicines, drugs with Lu-177 demonstrate high efficiency in targeted therapy of a number of oncological diseases. Rosatom is the only company in the world with the technological capabilities to produce all types of lutetium-177.

Toukan recalled that Jordan has been producing its own radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment of cancer since 2018. Thus, the kingdom completely stopped importing radioactive iodine, replacing it with a drug of its own production. In addition to holmium, Jordan, together with Belgium, produces terbium, and is also developing the production of another radioactive substance widely used for medical purposes - technetium. "We will rapidly expand the use of (similar technologies - ed.) to meet the needs of medicine in Jordan, especially in the field of modern methods of cancer treatment," said the head of JAEC.