New contrast agent is officially available for use in hospitals and clinics
Bracco’s new MRI contrast agent is now available for use in hospitals and clinics, according to the company’s latest announcement.
A Feb. 14 release from Bracco indicates that the recently FDA-approved, gadolinium-based contrast agent (GBCA) VUEWAY, also known as gadopiclenol, is officially being used for patients undergoing MR imaging. The first injection took place at Wellstar Health System in Georgia.
In a prepared statement, Bracco Imaging’s Vice-Chairman and CEO, Fulvio Renoldi Bracco, expressed his enthusiasm for the company’s latest development.
"We're particularly excited about our innovations in contrast imaging because of the wide-reaching impact across disease categories with 30 million MRI scans conducted annually, globally. That these institutions have prioritized offering VUEWAY injection, a novel next-generation MRI contrast agent, reinforces the potential value VUEWAY injection will provide in patient care and diagnostics,” the statement reads.
The injection, which was approved by the U.S. FDA in September of 2022 for use in adults and children age 2 and older, uses half the dose of gadolinium contained in most GBCAs. The agent also is said to have the highest relaxivity of all approved GBCAs, which helps to maintain image quality at the lower dose.
The injection was tested in two recent phase 3 trials—the PICTURE trial and the PROMISE trial. Its development is the result of a collaboration between Bracco and Guerbet. The two competitors entered into an agreement in December of 2021 with the intent of accelerating the product’s availability.
Speaking on that partnership last fall, Cosimo De Pinto, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Bracco Diagnostics, had this to say:
"By exploring a flexible application of our intellectual property rights, we've seen that joining forces has led to meaningful innovation at a faster pace. One of the greatest barriers to health equity and access is overly strict adherence to traditional approaches to knowledge and information sharing.”
The injection is now available to order from Bracco Diagnostics. Prescribing information can be found at VUEWAY.com.
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In addition to her background in journalism, Hannah also has patient-facing experience in clinical settings, having spent more than 12 years working as a registered rad tech. She began covering the medical imaging industry for Innovate Healthcare in 2021.