Advanced Accelerator Applications has signed an agreement to build, install and operate a pharmaceutical laboratory for radiopharmaceuticals production at the Institut Curie’s René Huguenin cancer hospital in Paris.

The new cyclotron is expected to be fully operational in 2013 and will guarantee the supply of radiopharmaceuticals for the hospital’s two PET scanners, said the company. It will be used to produce F-18 isotope to study prostate cancer and lymphoma. Also produced will be C-11, a research nuclide whose use has been limited by its very short half life of around 20 minutes, requiring it to be produced on site.

René Huguenin is Advanced Accelerator Applications' fifth production center in France.