Vietnam has spent decades building the ability to produce radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals for its domestic healthcare system. Now the country wants to substantially expand that capability, bringing more of the nuclear medicine supply chain inside its borders as cancer care, imaging infrastructure and demand for radiation-based medicine continue to grow.
The Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute, or Vinatom, said this week that the country has mastered production of a range of radioisotopes and radiopharmaceuticals used in cancer diagnosis and treatment, reducing dependence on imported products. The announcement is part of a larger effort extending well beyond existing production sites. Vietnam is expanding international cooperation around cyclotron technology and radiopharmaceutical manufacturing, preparing new production infrastructure in Hanoi and advancing plans for a Nuclear Science and Technology Research Centre in Dong Nai that would include a new research reactor.
Those investments are increasingly connected by national policy. Vietnam’s government approved a new Strategy for the Development and Application of Atomic Energy for Peaceful Purposes through 2035 in March, identifying expansion of nuclear medicine, radiotherapy and domestic radiopharmaceutical production as explicit national objectives. Rather than treating medical isotopes as a narrow research activity, the strategy places their production alongside nuclear power, industrial radiation applications, scientific infrastructure and healthcare modernization within a much larger atomic-energy program.
The country is not starting from zero. Vietnam’s Dalat Nuclear Research Reactor has produced medical radioisotopes for decades, historically including iodine-131, phosphorus-32 and technetium-99m generators. IAEA records also show earlier production of chromium-51 and samarium-153, while cyclotron facilities in the country have supported production of fluorine-18 FDG and development work involving shorter-lived PET tracers.
That existing infrastructure has allowed Vietnam to develop a domestic nuclear medicine capability despite the logistical challenges that come with importing radioactive materials. Unlike conventional pharmaceuticals, many radiopharmaceuticals cannot simply be manufactured thousands of miles away, stored in a warehouse and shipped when needed. Radioactive decay places a clock on every step of production and distribution, with the severity of that constraint depending on the isotope involved.
FDG illustrates the problem particularly well. Fluorine-18 has a physical half-life of about 110 minutes, making regional cyclotron production critical for routine PET imaging. Carbon-11, which has a half-life of roughly 20 minutes, requires production much closer to the scanner. Reactor-produced isotopes create a different set of logistics, but dependence on international supply can still expose healthcare systems to reactor outages, transportation disruptions, border delays and limited production capacity elsewhere.
Vietnam’s strategy increasingly appears designed around reducing those vulnerabilities while also expanding what its nuclear medicine system can offer.
Vinatom is now working with the Korea Institute of Radiological & Medical Sciences on cyclotron technology, radiopharmaceutical manufacturing and workforce training. One immediate objective is to upgrade FDG production capacity at the Hanoi Irradiation Centre, while Korean specialists are expected to train Vietnamese personnel in accelerator operation and radiopharmaceutical production. The cooperation also includes workshops focused on research, production of new radiopharmaceuticals and preclinical development.
Vietnam’s broader nuclear-energy development plan points toward a larger production platform. Among the prioritized healthcare investments identified by the government is a cyclotron and associated laboratory infrastructure in Hanoi specifically intended to support radiopharmaceutical development. The same plan calls for expansion of nuclear medicine and diagnostic-imaging services, investment in leading oncology and nuclear medicine centers and improvements to the workforce and institutions responsible for nuclear science and radiation medicine.
The next major step could come from the planned Nuclear Science and Technology Research Centre in Dong Nai. The project is expected to include a new multipurpose research reactor, providing Vietnam with substantially newer nuclear research infrastructure than the 500-kilowatt Dalat reactor that has supported isotope production and research for decades. Vinatom has tied the Dong Nai project to expanded capabilities in nuclear science, materials, fuel and reactor technology, while Vietnam’s broader development plans identify medical radioisotopes as one of the important peaceful applications of that infrastructure.
A new reactor could eventually give Vietnam considerably more flexibility in the isotopes it can investigate and produce, although the precise future medical-isotope portfolio for the Dong Nai facility has not yet been publicly defined. That distinction matters. It would be premature to assume that Vietnam intends to produce any particular emerging therapeutic isotope simply because a larger reactor is being developed.
What is clear is that the country wants substantially more domestic capability. Its 2035 atomic-energy strategy explicitly calls for expanded research and production of radiopharmaceuticals as a means of reducing import dependence while extending nuclear medicine services throughout the country. The medical objectives sit alongside targets for broader imaging and radiation-treatment infrastructure, reflecting an effort to build the production side and the clinical side of the system at the same time.
Vietnam’s approach reflects a broader shift taking place in nuclear medicine. Isotope production is increasingly being viewed not only as an industrial opportunity but as a form of healthcare infrastructure. Countries that rely heavily on imported radionuclides can expand their PET scanners, SPECT systems and nuclear medicine departments only to discover that access to the materials those systems consume remains dependent on production capacity located elsewhere.
That vulnerability becomes more consequential as nuclear medicine expands from diagnostics into a growing therapeutic market. The supply requirements for a healthcare system administering iodine-131 and performing FDG PET are different from those of a future system using a larger menu of diagnostic tracers, theranostic imaging agents and therapeutic radionuclides. Building local production does not eliminate every supply-chain risk, but it can shorten distribution routes, increase control over scheduling and make it easier for domestic institutions to develop and evaluate new radiopharmaceuticals.
For emerging nuclear medicine markets, production capacity can therefore influence what medicine is realistically available. A hospital may be capable of purchasing a PET/CT system, but access to tracers determines how fully that equipment can be used. The same relationship applies to research: local isotope and radiopharmaceutical production gives universities and hospitals greater ability to investigate compounds that may never become commercially practical if every experimental dose has to be imported.
Vietnam’s strategy acknowledges that connection. The government says it wants nuclear medicine and radiotherapy networks expanded throughout the country, with medical radiation infrastructure reaching levels comparable with more advanced ASEAN markets over the coming decade. At the same time, it is investing in the scientific, production and workforce capabilities needed to supply those services rather than assuming international producers will provide everything they require.
Much of the commercial radiopharmaceutical industry’s attention remains concentrated in the United States and Europe, where most major drug developers, large pharmaceutical transactions and late-stage therapeutic programs are located. The underlying nuclear medicine economy, however, is becoming increasingly global, and countries with growing cancer burdens are beginning to invest in the infrastructure required to participate more directly in it.
That investment does not necessarily mean every country will attempt to become a major exporter of medical isotopes. In Vietnam’s case, the immediate objective is more fundamental: develop enough domestic capability to reduce dependence on imported products, expand access to nuclear medicine and create the technical base required to support future radiopharmaceutical research and clinical use.
There is still a considerable distance between building infrastructure and producing a broad portfolio of radiopharmaceuticals at commercial scale. New facilities require trained radiochemists, accelerator and reactor specialists, quality systems, regulatory oversight, maintenance capability and reliable distribution networks. Expanding production also has to occur alongside clinical demand; an isotope has little value if hospitals lack the equipment, physicians or treatment programs needed to use it.
Vietnam is increasingly building both sides of that equation. Its existing reactor and cyclotrons provide a foundation, while the Hanoi expansion, international training programs and planned Dong Nai research reactor point toward a larger domestic production base. At the same time, national policy calls for more nuclear medicine facilities and broader access to radiation-based cancer diagnosis and treatment.
The result is something larger than another isotope-production project. Vietnam is beginning to treat radiopharmaceutical capability as part of the healthcare infrastructure a modern cancer system needs to control for itself.
