New radiopharmaceuticals

With the development of positron emission tomography, the significant increase in prescriptions of [(18)F]FDG has underlined the interest for molecular imaging in many pathologies. Facing the demand of new radiopharmaceuticals (frequently clinically validated in the last century) for more and more specific diagnosis, the nuclear physician is confronted with a sparse offer of the radiopharmaceutical companies and a particularly complicated radiopharmaceutical legislation. This paper briefly reports on the radiopharmaceutical statutes encountered in France nowadays; it emphasizes that is essential to deeply modify the conditions to obtain a marketing authorization for radiopharmaceuticals if we want to propose to our patients the kind of right they have to expect from nuclear medicine. (C) 2008 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.