State Corporation Rosatom and Phillips have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop nuclear medicine in Russia, with the final aim to make Russian equipment internationally competitive.
The agreement signed at the St. Petersburg Forum covers joint work in equipment production as well as R&D and technology transfer according to Rosatom.“The companies are going to cooperate in 4 main directions, including production of delicate diagnostic equipment based on nuclear medicine.”Rosatom will conduct and develop production of medical equipment, infrastructure and the technological base, while Phillips will transfer all the necessary technological developments to Rosatom, as well as educate Russian specialists and engineers.According to Ronald de Jong, Senior Vice President at Phillips, the deal is a first of kind.“Under this partnership we will not only work together manufacturing and developing equipments, but that’s also the first time in history that a manufacturer will transfer intellectual property and knowledge and a license to a foreign company.”With Russia currently importing more than 80% of its medical equipment Sergey Kirienko, CEO at Rosatom, noted the agreement would lead to increased domestic medical equipment production.“The aim of our cooperation is to create in Russia a full fledged direction of nuclear medicine. According to the programme designed by the Government of Russian Federation we strive to produce no less than 50% of medical equipment in Russia. We expect that in the end the population will be diagnosed with the equipment made in Russia in the near future, that at least won’t be worse than the best world counterparts. ”