Automated radiosynthesis of 68Ga for large-scale routine production using 68Zn pressed target

Gallium-68 (68Ga) has attracted increasing interest in recent years due to the expanding clinical applications of 68Ga-based radiopharmaceuticals (Rahbar et al., 2017). 68Ga is mainly produced via 68Ge/68Ga generators that are limited in yield by the 68Ge activity (typically up to 1.85 GBq at calibration time). With the increased-demand of 68Ga in nuclear medicine for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging, there is a need for more efficient and robust production methods to obtain larger amounts of [68Ga]GaCl3 with high radionuclidic and radiochemical purity and apparent molar activity (AMA) for facilitating the distribution of 68Ga-based radiopharmaceuticals. The objectives of this study were to develop a fast and efficient process for the preparation of 68Zn-based solid targets and to optimize the critical parameters for the automated radiosynthesis of [68Ga]GaCl3 for large-scale routine production. •68Zn-pressed target with a novel magnetic target carrier for facilitating solid target transport, irradiation and release.•Production of 145 GBq (EOB) of 68Ga using 68Zn-pressed target irradiated 90 min at 35 μA and 13 MeV.•Optimization of critical parameters for the automated radiosynthesis of [68Ga]GaCl3.•Robust and fast automated purification process using a cassette-based system for the routine production of [68Ga]GaCl3.•Purity and apparent molar activity (AMA) similar to generator-produced [68Ga]GaCl3.