Colombia buys the radiopharmaceutical from European countries, but the plants that produce it temporarily stopped their reactors, which is why Invima is carrying out “monitoring to mitigate the risk.”
Colombian News.
There is a shortage of a radiopharmaceutical that is necessary when diagnosing cancer in patients in the country, the problem is that the raw material for these is not produced in Colombia and production worldwide is scarce .
Patients with pathologies such as cancer or cardiovascular diseases could be presenting delays in their treatments.
This is because the drugs known as Sodium Technesium Iodide (I-131 and Technetium 99)which are vital to diagnose the disease and used in diagnostic aids such as scintigraphy and therapies, since they are in short supply
According to Camilo Prieto, a researcher in the nuclear affairs group of the National Geological Service and a professor at the Javeriana University, “Colombia is not self-sufficient in the production of isotopes.”
He explained that “Colombia imports them into 5 nuclear reactors (Molybdenum-99) and at this time there are limitations on their production.”
#ATTENTION Colombia went into shortage of a medicine that is key in the diagnosis and follow-up of cancer patients. This problem needs to be fixed @MinSaludCol pic.twitter.com/0vKzkf8weA
— Camilo Prieto Valderrama (@CamiloPrietoVal) November 16, 2022
Waiting for appointments and exams
Empress Angarita Díaz, president of the Colombian Association of Nuclear Medicine, was one of those who warned of the crisis.
“They have lost our patients. We have had to reschedule hundreds of patients throughout the country, waiting for an exam, a scintigraphy, “he denounced.
He indicated that, “and not to mention cancer patients of thyroid that can take two or three months in line and we have to call them to tell them that it is time to cancel their therapy ”.
The doctor called on the Ministry of Health to get them out of that “giant bag” where they have been put with all the medicines.
And calls for the implementation of independent legislation for radiopharmaceuticals.
What does Invima say?
Invima assured that it will start monitoring the availability of the active principle.
The entity is reviewing with the holders of the sanitary registry, to mitigate the risk of shortages in the country.
And it will do the same with the radiopharmaceutical with active ingredient Technetium 99.
In the first verification, five sanitary registries were identified in the database, three in a valid state and two in the process of being renewed.
The Ministry of Health has not yet given official statements on the subject.
However, that ministry had announced in March 2022 that it was monitoring the supply of these drugs.
Colombia does not produce them and already in the international market there were problems to get them regularly.
