September 4th, 2023. Wiesbaden, Germany, and Pretoria, South Africa.
The International Centers for Precision Oncology (ICPO) Foundation and NTP Radioisotopes SOC Ltd. (NTP) today announced a collaboration to promote international education standards in Radiomolecular Precision Oncology (RPO) and support the establishment and expansion of a global network of Theranostics Centers. The overarching goal of the collaboration is to substantially increase patient access to advanced RPO imaging and therapies with a special focus on the African continent.
ICPO Foundation and NTP signed an agreement to advance education and infrastructure in RPO on the African continent through their collective medical and scientific knowledge and extensive networks. Together, NTP and ICPO will work on evolving best practice standards and utilize the ICPO Academy for Theranostics Platform to provide state-of-the-art education and training to healthcare professionals across Africa starting with South Africa as of September 2023 through a combination of the ICPO Academy e-learning platform and an on-site nursing nuclear medicine program. The ICPO Academy for Theranostics offers a combination of e-learning education with a multi-level qualification process, as well as tailor-made online courses providing application and equipment specific training. NTP intends to involve their international experts to help enhance the ICPO Academy for Theranostics as well as support evolving its content and country specific translations and certifications. Leveraging NTP’s industrial and innovation track-record in Africa, ICPO and NTP plan to furthermore work together in the establishment of a network of practical training centers across Africa, which will complement the e-learning platform with on-site training for the most qualified alumni of the ICPO Academy.
Furthermore, it has been agreed to cooperate on expanding the ICPO Theranostics Center network to African countries where NTP is active, in order to provide patients with widespread and democratized access to RPO. The ICPO Theranostics Centers network is set up to serve as a crystallization point for medicine, academia and industry providing advanced RPO imaging and therapies to cancer patients worldwide and in the context of the NTP/ICPO collaboration especially the African continent.
“Theranostics, having shown fantastic results in diagnosis and treatment of cancer will gain greater traction and patient access across Africa through the ICPO/NTP collaboration”, said Mr. Oliver Buck, Trustee of the ICPO Foundation. “We are very excited to join forces with our partner NTP to collaborate on providing standardized education and training to an increasingly significant number of clinicians across Africa, sharing globally standardized processes and in turn significantly increasing access for African patients to Radiomolecular Precision Oncology.”
Mr. Thabo Tselane, Group Managing Director of NTP, commented: “We are delighted to launch this official partnership with the ICPO Foundation. We are happy to become advocates of standardized high-quality education of medical professionals in Radiomolecular Precision Oncology and thereby to substantially expand patient access within the growing African community. We are convinced that together we can now make an impact in countries across Africa where patients, still today, have little or no access to Theranostics.”
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About ICPO Foundation
The International Centers for Precision Oncology Foundation (ICPO) is a non-profit organization established in 2019 under German law by leading international medical practitioners and life sciences entrepreneurs. Recognizing a paradigm shift in cancer care from one size fits all to a personalized approach, the ICPO Foundation is helping to build momentum to scale global patient access to Radionuclide Molecularly Targeted Precision Oncology to support this shift. To scale patient access, the ICPO Foundation aims to develop an international network of physical diagnostic and therapeutic Centers for Precision Oncology organized in a Social Franchise model based on shared know-how, certified education, and design and process standardization that enables best clinical practice globally. Furthermore, it is the ICPO Foundation’s objective to empower its Centers by embedding them in a highly inclusive Community that spearheads its model and lives up to the Precision Oncology promise, by making it available to all patients in need, irrespective of country or social status.
Recently the ICPO foundation has closed collaborations with renowned medical associations such as WARMTH (World Association of Radiopharmaceuticals and Molecular Therapies) and is establishing the ICPO Academy for Radiomolecular Precision Oncology as a globally available e-learning platform.
Learn more at: www.icpo.foundation
About NTP Radioisotopes SOC Ltd.
NTP Radioisotopes SOC Ltd “NTP” is a state-owned company and is a subsidiary of the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa). NTP is among the world’s top producers and distributors of key medical radioisotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), diagnostic radiopharmaceutical products and radioisotope-based therapeutic products such as Iodine-131 and Lutetium-177.
Our high-flux reactor SAFARI-1 allows NTP to provide one of the most reliable and trusted sources of commercial Mo-99 and I-131. The daughter or decay product of Mo-99, technetium-99m (Tc-99m), is used world-wide in more than 40-million medical diagnostic imaging studies every year. Headquartered at Necsa’s Pelindaba complex in South Africa, NTP offers a uniquely integrated production, processing, packaging, and delivery service, operating 24 hours a day to ensure the safe, rapid, and reliable delivery of radionuclides to users around the world.
As a state-owned company, NTP Radioisotopes SOC Ltd is committed to playing an active role in preserving our legacy and securing our future by investing in the skills, knowledge, and experience for our people.
Learn more at:v www.ntp.co.za
Media Contact ICPO Foundation
Odile Jaume
CEO
Email: odile.jaume@icpo.foundation
Phone: + 49 611 341 486 30
Media Contact NTP
Thabo Tselane
Group Managing Director
Email: thabo.tselane@ntp.co.za
Phone: +27 12 305 4471