COMMENTS AND PERSPECTIVES The Cost of Bringing a Radiopharmaceutical to the Patient's Bedside

摘要

The approval of new imaging agents has slowed, much as for therapeutic drugs. Scher-ing and Amersham, for instance, each spent about dollar150 million a year for the period 1999-2004 on imaging agent research but did not get one new drug or significant indication ap-proved in the United States as a result. This occurred at a time when the Food and Drug Administration has placed imaging in its Critical Path Opportunities list and when clinical PET has had double-digit growth.