From June 21 to 24, 2025, SNMMI2025, the annual global summit in nuclear medicine and molecular imaging, kicked off in New Orleans, USA. As an innovative participant in China's nuclear medicine industry, UnitedWell deeply engaged with the conference throughout its duration. We strongly resonated with Dr. Margie Warrell's analysis of industry pain points during the opening ceremony, including resource constraints and slow technological translation. On-site, we exchanged in-depth ideas with international peers on localized solutions to core challenges such as isotope supply and drug R&D, gaining profound insights.
Resonance with Industry Dilemmas: Deep Reflection from Data Pain Points to Local Practices
"When hearing that most isotopes in the U.S. rely heavily on imports, with 30 types completely dependent on overseas supply, I deeply felt the shared pressure faced by global nuclear medicine practitioners," said our Chief Scientific Officer in a post-conference interview. "This dilemma also exists in the Chinese market—over 90% of new isotopes in China depend on imports, driving up costs. To make matters worse, small and medium-sized pharmaceutical companies often face lengthy challenges throughout the full cycle of advancing nuclear medicine projects from R&D to IND approval. This double 'disruption' from the supply end to the approval end has delayed many excellent drugs from entering the market and benefiting patients. Our survey of top tertiary hospitals in China found that 72% of nuclear medicine department directors have postponed diagnostic projects due to unstable isotope supply. This sense of powerlessness—wanting to do more for patients but being constrained—is exactly the real barrier that requires the courage to innovate to break through."
Global Collaboration Actions: Practices from Local Innovation to International Ecosystem Building
International collaboration in nuclear medicine first needs to address the fundamental contradiction of "non-interoperable standards." Observing the current industry landscape, significant standard differences exist between Europe, America, and Asia in areas such as radiopharmaceutical quality control and imaging data transmission. Take ⁶⁸Ga-FAPI as an example: the variation in comprehensive quality control parameters (including radiochemical purity and nuclear purity) across regions reaches 18%, reducing the efficiency of cross-border trials by 28-32% through repeated testing and launch delays. Based on this, we propose exploring the establishment of a Global Nuclear Medicine Technical Standards Collaboration Platform, whose core functions should include:
●Dynamic Standards Database: Integrate technical requirements from major global regulatory agencies (FDA, EMA, NMPA, etc.), and generate a "standards difference map" through AI semantic analysis to provide compliance guidance for companies engaged in cross-border R&D.
●Mutually Recognized Testing System: Collaborate with authoritative organizations like the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to design mutually recognized testing schemes for core indicators such as isotope purity and imaging resolution across regions, reducing repeated testing costs.
●Emerging Technology Consensus Mechanism: For cutting-edge fields like alpha drugs and AI-assisted diagnosis, establish "standards co-creation working groups" involving clinical experts, technology developers, and regulators to avoid standard lag in technological iteration.
This standardized collaboration does not pursue a "one-size-fits-all" uniformity but aims to enable efficient flow of global innovation resources within a compatible standards framework through "difference visualization" and "consensus generation mechanisms."
Talent Development Collaboration: Building a Cross-Generational and Cross-Regional Knowledge Inheritance System
Innovative breakthroughs in nuclear medicine ultimately rely on global talent echelon construction. The industry currently faces a significant "talent gap"—knowledge transfer efficiency between senior experts in Europe/America and young scholars in emerging markets is low, with nuclear medicine technicians in developing countries averaging less than one-third (62 hours vs. 218 hours) of the annual training duration of their counterparts in developed countries. We envision constructing a Global Nuclear Medicine Talent Collaboration Network that focuses not only on technical teaching but also on establishing an identity of "global nuclear medicine community," enabling practitioners from different regions to form collaborative response capabilities to global challenges while solving local problems.
Academic Ecosystem Building: Shifting Values from Paper Publication to Problem Solving
The current nuclear medicine academic system tends to prioritize publication over application. In 2024, the number of SCI papers in global nuclear medicine increased by 18% year-on-year, but less than 5% of technologies were actually translated into clinical applications. To promote a value shift in academic collaboration, the following suggestions can serve as a starting point:
Problem-Oriented 'Global Research Challenge Program'
●Establish an annual "Key Issues List in Nuclear Medicine," determine priorities through voting by global practitioners (e.g., focusing on "alpha drug dose personalization" in 2026), and adopt an "open scientific crowdsourcing" model:
- Global research teams can submit solutions to listed issues, gaining "challenge qualification" after expert preliminary review.
- Establish a cross-institutional experimental data sharing platform, allowing participating teams to access historical data from over 100 global laboratories for validation.
- Set up a "Clinical Translation Acceleration Fund" to provide full-process support for validated solutions, from animal experiments to IND applications.
●Application Value Evaluation System for Academic Achievements
Develop a new academic evaluation model that adds a "clinical translation index" to impact factors. This index should include dimensions such as: frequency of technology adoption in actual diagnostic projects, contribution to updating industry standards, and specific data on cost reduction or efficacy improvement.
The Underlying Logic of Future Collaboration: Paradigm Upgrade from Competition to Symbiosis
Global collaboration in nuclear medicine essentially requires a shift in thinking—from "zero-sum competition" to "ecological symbiosis." The underlying logic of this shift includes:
●Establishing a Risk-Sharing Mechanism: In heavy-asset fields like isotope production and drug R&D, explore "multinational joint investment" models, such as multiple countries jointly funding the maintenance of aging reactors and sharing production capacity proportionally to reduce the burden and risk on any single country.
●Constructing a Value-Sharing Network: Develop a global nuclear medicine innovation transaction platform using an "intellectual property pool" model, where participants can access relevant patent licenses at low cost, while reinvesting part of the proceeds into basic research to form a virtuous cycle of "innovation-revenue-innovation."
●Cultivating Collaborative Cultural Identity: Strengthen practitioners' mission 认同 of the "human health community" through annual events like "Global Nuclear Medicine Day," elevating "collaborative innovation" from a commercial choice to a value pursuit.
As Dr. Margie Warrell emphasized in her keynote speech on "courageous leadership," global collaboration requires the courage to break through geographical barriers and institutional interests, as well as the wisdom to construct a systematic collaboration framework. As a Chinese nuclear medicine enterprise, UnitedWell will continue to participate in global ecosystem building with an open attitude, integrate local innovation experience into global solutions, and accelerate its own development by absorbing international wisdom, ultimately contributing cross-regional collaborative power to the industry mission of "accelerating cures."
