GE Healthcare announced to customers that it will experience an impending shortage in its Ceretec (technetium Tc-99m exametazime) supply due to the flooding of its manufacturing site in Gloucester, England, which will be temporarily closed. As a result of extreme weather throughout western England, the company announced that Ceretec will be temporarily off the market once its current supply has been exhausted.

Ceretec is an imaging agent for two different indications. One is for visualization of cerebral blood flow in stroke patients. The other is for labeling of white blood cells to localize intra-abdominal infection and inflammatory bowel disease. 

GE moved some of its product lines to another manufacturing site in Oslo, but Ceretec cannot be manufactured elsewhere due to licensing production and regulatory restraints.

The company stated that it is committed to restoring the Gloucester site as soon as possible, and that it has deployed resources to assist in the process.