Quality Control of prostate cancer theragnostics
29 June 2022
Luis Carlos Vega Rodriguez, QC Assistant/QA, and Nilka M. Guerrero, Technical Director, with their Logi-CHROM ONE at the Radiofarmacia de Centroamérica
LabLogic’s Logi-CHROM ONE is being used in the quality control of 18F-PSMA-1007 for use in hospitals across Central America
Nilka M. Guerrero is Technical Director at Radiofarmacia de Centroamérica in Panama, which is a centralised radiopharmacy manufacturing 18F-FDG radiotracer for tumour diagnosis. They supply hospitals in Panama and across Central America, including Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica.
Nilka and her team recently took delivery of a LabLogic Logi-CHROM ONE integrated radio-HPLC stack to expand the radiopharmacy’s production to include 18F-PSMA-1007 for prostate cancer. We spoke to her to find out how she’s been getting on.
Specialised small lab equipment for radiopharmacies
Nilka began by explaining where the requirement for a radio-HPLC system came from.
“Many of the hospitals we supply were asking for prostate cancer theragnostics. We decided to begin manufacturing 18F-PSMA-1007, as this is something we can produce without modifying our existing equipment. The sooner we could produce this for the hospitals, the better, because of the high demand, but for the quality control, we need to perform radio-HPLC analysis and didn’t have a system already.
“We originally looked at different suppliers, and their systems were really expensive and not within our budget, so we kept looking. LabLogic was recommended to us by a contact in Belgium who told us about a company in England that specialises in small lab equipment for radiopharmacies, so we reached out.”
Minimal footprint in one compact stack
Nilka recalled when she first received the Logi-CHROM ONE, saying, “It was really fun when we opened it because it was so small. I laughed and said, ‘It’s a toy one!’ I’ve worked in other QC labs before and used huge modules, so the Logi-CHROM ONE was a really pleasant surprise."
When asked if she had concerns about how the Logi-CHROM ONE would perform because of its compact size, Nilka said, “We looked at it, and all the modules were there, and it does exactly what we need it to do for the PSMA HPLC – it’s just so small!
“I’m still learning because this is new for us, but it’s straightforward and we’re really happy with it. We had really good communication from LabLogic, who always came back to us really quickly if we had an issue.”
Find out more
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