Leading British company started in Turku

Amersham Health, a leading British provider of radio pharmaceuticals, opened a unit in PharmaCity. Recently founded Turku Imanet Oy is part of Amersham Health’s network of imaging research centres that in addition to Turku operate in London and Uppsala.

The founding of Imanet Oy is linked to the large research and co-operation agreement made by Amersham Health and Turku PET Centre at the beginning of the year. According to the agreement, Amersham Health will buy the fourth PET camera for the PET Centre, finance the equipment of a new laboratory ofradiochemistry and contribute to the costs of the new magnetic imaging equipment for Turku University Central Hospital. Moreover, the University of Turku was granted a five-year professorship of radiochemistry, which enables starting training in radiochemistry. The PET Centre will in turn provide Amersham with research services.

The national PET Centre is a research centre jointly owned by the University of Turku, Åbo Akademi University and the Hospital District of Southwest Finland. The co-operation agreement with Amersham will not change the core task of the national centre; the PET method is utilised in both drug development processes and examination of human illnesses. PET, or positron emission tomography, is isotope imaging with which the camera can find, for instance, cancer metastases, or it can be used to study the division of tasks between different parts of the brain.