South Africa: Nuclear Medicine Research Center Opens

May 23, 2024 Hour: 1:38 pm

On Thursday, South Africa’s Minister of Higher Education, Science and Innovation, Blade Nzimande, inaugurated a Nuclear Medicine Research (NuMeRI) facility here, the first of its kind on the African continent.

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According to Nzimande, the world-class facilities are a product of South Africa’s long-standing cooperation with the European Union (EU) dating back to 2012.

“Mobilizing innovation and technology to deliver quality healthcare to all South Africans is a key priority of the ministry’s 10-year Science, Technology and Innovation Plan,” he said.

NuMeRI is a comprehensive medical imaging facility dedicated to drug development and imaging-based clinical research that will be open to all researchers in the country who need it.

It will help take bio-innovations further down the value chain, from radiolabeling to pre-clinical testing. It will also contribute to good manufacturing practices and clinical trials, Nzimande explained.

#NuMeRI – a “one-stop-shop” offering medical nuclear imaging and theragnostics (a treatment strategy that combines therapeutics with diagnostics) – is dedicated to drug development and clinical research to benefit Africa and the world. Read https://t.co/boz9m2EeQy #Itspossible pic.twitter.com/00gmTsG6hX

— DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE & INNOVATION (@dsigovza)
May 23, 2024

In addition, he said, NuMeRI’s capabilities will contribute to the precision medicine approach and personalized targeted therapies being developed in South Africa.

It also enhances South African medicinal chemistry research, accelerating the development of drugs to address national priority diseases such as cancer and tuberculosis, allowing new pharmaceuticals to reach the market sooner.

In this way, he concluded, it gives South African pharmaceutical development a competitive edge over its global counterparts.