IBA Molecular, Piramal Imaging Sign Agreement for New F-18 Amyloid Imaging Agent

IBA Molecular, Piramal Imaging Sign Agreement for New F-18 Amyloid Imaging Agent PR Newswire DULLES, Virginia and MUMBAI, India, Aug. 6, 2012 - IBA Molecular to Manufacture and Distribute 18F-Florbetaben in Europe and US DULLES, Virginia and MUMBAI, India, Aug. 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IBA Molecular and Piramal Imaging SA (Piramal) have announced an agreement whereby IBA Molecular will manufacture and distribute 18F-Florbetaben, Piramal's new diagnostic imaging agent, in the European and US markets. 18F- Florbetaben is a radiopharmaceutical currently in development for use with positron emission tomography (PET) for the detection of beta-Amyloid plaque deposition in the brain, a pathological feature associated with Alzheimer's disease and other neurologic conditions. Recently announced results from Phase III studies (presented at the American Academy of Neurology's 64th Annual Meeting) indicate that PET imaging with 18F-Florbetaben reliably detects beta-amyloid in the brain with great accuracy and may have potential as an aid in the diagnosis and assessment of Alzheimer's disease. The visual assessment procedure proposed for routine clinical practice demonstrated 100% sensitivity and 92% specificity with excellent inter-reader agreement (kappa=0.88). This pivotal trial was the first to overlay MRI and PET data to accurately match Florbetaben gray matter uptake with disease in six defined regions of the brain.