Areva Med, the subsidiary of French engineering company Areva for the development of cancer treatments, opened its second lead-212 production facility on 15 April. The plant in Plano, Texas, known as DDPU (Domestic Distribution and Purification Unit), will be Areva Med's US. It will also host the laboratories and offices of its subsidiary, Macrocyclics, which designs and manufactures chelating agents and chemicals for nuclear medicine.
An Areva Med statement said the new facility will employ ten people and represents an opportunity to "expand the range and increase the quality of products and services for its American partners and customers".
Areva in February 2014 announced the selection of Caen in northwest France as the location for its planned industrial-scale lead-212 production facility. It said that Areva Med plans to build the plant to "provide an industrial production capacity" to complement the Maurice Tubiana facility in Bessines in western France. The Maurice Tubiana facility, opened in November 2013, recovers high-purity lead-212 from thorium-232 and produces sufficient amounts for clinical development.
