SOFIE, a U.S. producer of PET radiopharmaceuticals, has made RLS (Radioisotope Life Sciences), the third-largest nuclear medicine pharmacy network in the country, an official distributor of its medicine doses.

Through the deal, SOFIE will be able to expand into new markets, with RLS preparing and distributing all patient doses for SOFIE to select customers, including hospitals, teaching institutions, and doctors.

SOFIE manufactures FDG, Pylarify, and Neuraceq among other radiopharmaceutical solutions used in the care of over 400,000 patients annually, owns intellectual property rights for fibroblast activation protein inhibitors (FAPI), which have been used in care for approximately 28 different cancers.
It also facilitates R&D and contract manufacturing for pharma partnerships and its own proprietary drug development, and has a Theranostics Center of Excellence that it opened in May 2022 to manufacture and distribute multiple therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals to providers worldwide.

RLS is a Joint Commission accredited network of 31 radiopharmacies that it acquired from GE HealthCare in 2020 and that are spread out across 18 states. Its portfolio consists of technetium-99m (Tc-99m) and non-technetium products, Tl-201 chloride and I-123 ioflupane, as well as cold kits and accessories. It is the only accredited radiopharmacy network in the country, which runs 24/7 365 days a year.

“Compounding and delivering thousands of patient doses daily, RLS allows for co-location and brings the specialized expertise we need to bring PET diagnostics closer to hospitals and patients,” said Patrick Phelps, president and CEO of SOFIE, in a statement.

According to SOFIE, RLS will provide it with last-mile delivery services, as well as significant space, exemplary regulatory status, and industry-leading clean rooms built to ISO 1644-1 specifications for compounding radiopharmaceuticals.

RLS recently struck up a national group purchasing agreement with Premier where it will provide Premier’s members with compounding and delivery services at special pricing and prenegotiated terms.

It also partnered with SpectronRx, which will develop radiopharmaceuticals for it, using RLS’ radiopharmacy network to make them in bulk. RLS will then distribute them, with the aim being to address drug development, manufacturing and distribution issues in the supply chain process by enhancing production.

RLS did not respond with comments in time for publication of this article.

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