Curium has has closed its deal to acquire French commercial and manufacturing operations of PET-diagnostics maker Cyclopharma. This expands its French network to 13 PET radiopharmacies and its European PET footprint to 25 sites.

“We are excited about the acquisition and the value the combined group can offer to our customers and patients across France,” Benoit Woessmer, Vice President of Curium’s Southern European operations said in a statement. "We are pleased to welcome our new colleagues to Curium Group and look forward to working with them in the next leg of our journey.”

The deal was announced in early April and brings together leading radiopharmaceutical players – adding nearly 100 Cyclopharma employees and seven PET radiopharmacies to Curium. The move will permit "comprehensive coverage of all 140 PET centers across France,” according to the announcement.

Cyclopharma’s existing R&D and international operations aren't part of the deal and will be kept by current majority shareholder, DENOS Group. It plans to take over Cyclopharma’s current R&D projects, and commercialize those molecules in France and worldwide.

“The acquisition of Cylopharma is transformational to our PET operations in France and expands our PET network across Europe to 25 sites,” said Renaud Dehareng, CEO of Curium Group, adding, “We intend to leverage this network for making further investments into innovative PET tracers, and offer ourselves as a manufacturing and commercialization platform of choice for development stage companies looking for partners.”

The first goal of the new firm, according to an April announcement, will be the launch of radiopharmaceutical tracer EstroTep, designed for breast cancer diagnosis, in Europe, as well as moving toward FDA clearance in the US.

Curium was formed in 2017 when IBA Molecular and Mallinckrodt Nuclear Medicine LLC combined.

"It's about leveraging the combined expertise, size and scale of two industry leaders with a proven track record in nuclear imaging excellence," Dehareng said at that time.

The manufacturing centers include one Molybdenum facility, three large SPECT facilities and about 40 PET and SPECT radiopharmacies.

"We have a very strong local and global presence, which ensures that we are close to our clients, and that's really critical in our business," said Dehareng.

IBA Molecular acquired Mallinckrodt Nuclear Imaging in January for about $690 million.

Curium was also in the news in January when it became the first in North America to fully transition radiopharmaceutical production away from highly-enriched uranium (HEU).

The American Medical Isotope Production Act, which was established in 2012, mandated that manufacturers fully convert to low-enriched uranium (LEU) by January 2020.

“Our 100 percent LEU conversion helps Curium generator customers eliminate the inefficiency of balancing the availability of both HEU and LEU generators in their inventory, and helps them to control costs better,” Roy Brown, VP of government affairs for Curium North America, said in a statement. “Something that is especially important when you consider the special reimbursement guidelines surrounding LEU versus HEU patient doses.”

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