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But the problem with PiB, which has a 20 minute half-life, is that a medical center needs a multi-million dollar cyclotron and trained chemists on staff to use it, Mathis said. He estimates there are only 60 to 70 centers around the world where it could be used.


But companies are racing to find alternatives. In a separate study presented at SNM, researchers led by Osama Sabri from the University of Leipzig in Germany carried out tests with florbetaben, a fluorine-based PET imaging agent made by Bayer HealthCare. In the phase 2 trial, the researchers found it to be quite successful in picking out patients with Alzheimer's, distinguishing between ailing patients and healthy controls with 80 percent sensitivity, 90 specificity, according to the researcher's report.

Flourine-based compounds, like florbetaben, have a nearly two-hour half-life, and are accessible to about 90 percent of the population, Mathis said. In addition to florbetaben, Avid Radiopharmaceuticals is studying florbetapir, and GE Healthcare has its own compound, GE-067 (which Mathis is helping to develop).

But does it work as well as PiB? There are nearly 200 papers about PiB, but only a handful about the fluorine-based agents, Mathis said. "Are they good enough? I don't have an answer to that. Nobody does," he said.

Right now, companies that make the drugs are running phase 3 trials, comparing brain scans using the agents with autopsy analyses. Trials should wrap up within six months to two years, Mathis said.

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