Radiopharmacy theme day: Saxony's Economics Minister Dirk Panter visits innovation drivers in Dresden and Radeberg

Saxony's Minister of Economics and Labor, Dirk Panter, visited the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR) and the companies in the nukliD® network on January 8, 2026 to see for himself the growing importance of the radiopharmaceutical industry during a "Radiopharmacy" theme day. Together with media representatives, he visited the Institute for Radiopharmaceutical Cancer Research at the HZDR with the Center for Radiopharmaceutical Tumor Research (ZRT) as well as the companies ROTOP Pharmaka GmbH and Eckert & Ziegler Isotope Technologies Dresden GmbH in Dresden-Rossendorf. The tour then continued to Radeberg to the companies ABX advanced biochemical compounds GmbH, CUP Laboratorien Dr. Freitag GmbH and TRIMT GmbH.

Following his discussions with company representatives and scientists, Minister Panter summarizes: "Investments in radiopharmacy pay off in several ways. They strengthen the innovation ecosystem and the competitiveness of companies. They also create new, high-quality jobs. Ultimately, patients benefit from more precise diagnostics and more effective therapies. Saxony can thus become a European beacon of radiopharmacy."

The theme day attracted media attention at the start of the year and provided a political tailwind for the nukliD® cluster, which was founded in January 2025 in the presence of Minister President Michael Kretschmer.

In Germany, around 500,000 people are diagnosed with cancer every year. Radiopharmaceuticals are becoming a key technology in modern nuclear medicine cancer treatment. The global market for radiopharmaceuticals is currently in the single-digit to low double-digit billion range (US dollars) per year and is growing at a high single-digit to sometimes double-digit rate, well above the general pharmaceutical market.

In Europe, the radiopharmaceutical market is roughly in the region of two to four billion US dollars per year, making it the second largest region in the world after North America. Similar to the global market, Europe has high single-digit to low double-digit annual growth rates. Important drivers are an ageing population, a research focus on curing cancer, the expansion of nuclear medicine centers and a strong industrial base (including in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Scandinavia and Switzerland). The nukliD® radiopharmaceutical cluster plays a key role in securing a leading position for Saxony and Germany in this important sector of the economy. The special thing about radiopharmaceuticals is that they have to be produced in close proximity to the nuclear medicine clinics due to their radiation, which only has a certain half-life.

To the SMWA blog: https://www.smwa.sachsen.de/blog/2026/01/08/strahlkraft-made-in-saxony-wie-sachsens-radiopharma-cluster-dem-krebs-den-kampf-ansagt/