Eckert & Ziegler celebrated its 30 year anniversary this year. Reason enough for us to celebrate and look back at our eventful history.
So we came together in the heart of Berlin to have a party and reminisce about old times.
On June 17, 2022, we gathered on Berlin’s rooftops to give a cheer to Eckert & Ziegler’s 30th anniversary.
Speeches by our Chairman of the Board, Dr. Andreas Eckert and the Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Maennig opened the evening.
Dr. Andreas Eckert giving his opening speech at the 30 year celebration of Eckert & Ziegler
They looked back at the company’s eventful past and its steady expansion, so we want to do the same in the following paragraphs.
Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG
Eckert & Ziegler with more than 900 employees is a leading specialist for isotope-related components in nuclear medicine and radiation therapy. The company offers a broad range of services and products for the radiopharmaceutical industry, from early development work to contract manufacturing and distribution.
It all began in 1992, when Andreas Eckert and Jürgen Ziegler founded BEBIG Isotopentechnik & Umweltdiagnostik GmbH in Berlin, Germany. The company was preceded by the Central Institute for Isotope Technology, a research institute of the GDR’s former Academy of Sciences.
The company manufactured and sold Ruthenium-106 applicators for the treatment of eye cancer and developed products for tumor treatment such as Iodine-125 seeds. This original business of ours is still maintained today in our Radiation Therapy Business Unit.
In 1995, the foundation was laid for what later became the Lab Devices Business Unit. That year the EUROTOPE Entwicklungsgesellschaft für Isotopentechnologien mbH was founded for the development of production lines and special sources.
After some further acquisitions and participations the Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG was founded in 1997 as a holding company for several specialized subsidiaries in the field of isotope technologies. Its shares were publicly listed on the New Market in Frankfurt two years later.
Andreas Eckert & Jürgen Ziegler at Eckert & Ziegler’s Headquarters in Berlin
Also in 1999 we substantially expanded our business by acquiring Isotope Products Laboratories in California. To this day, their development and production of radiation sources for industrial, scientific and medical applications play a key role in our group.
In the early 2000s, we took several steps to become more involved in the field of nuclear medicine, which today is a key part of our activities. This led to two huge achievements in 2006: The registration of Yttriga ([90Y]Yttrium chloride) as a pharmaceutical in several European countries and the development of Modular-Lab as our first radiosynthesis system.
Looking for ways to expand our capacities and know-how, we gained important facilities, capabilities and personnel by acquiring Nuclitec GmbH, isotope specialists from Braunschweig, Germany in 2009. Since then, major developments have been made in our GMP laboratories there and we are looking forward to further inspiring work from the colleagues in Braunschweig.
A further enhancement of our portfolio followed in 2011, when the group acquired Bioscan’s Business for Analytic Instrumentation and Radiochemistry Equipment which has been updated, improved and relaunched since then.
In 2015, our ongoing commitment to nuclear medicine and the Radiopharma Business bore further fruits: GalliaPharm® became the first 68Ge/68Ga generator approved as a drug product with its registration in 12 European countries. Today we are providing generators to nuclear medicine departments all over the world, right from our GMP production facilities in Berlin, Germany.
GalliaPharm® GMP production in Berlin
Another significant acquisition in 2017 cemented our role as a one-stop-shop for professionals in the field of nuclear medicine and isotope technologies. Since Isotope Technologies Dresden GmbH joined us as our Engineering division, we offer hot cells and customized work environments as well as production facilities according to our customers’ and partners’ needs.
In the last years, we have been working to improve and expand in many fields. Eckert & Ziegler has been making some exciting acquisitions of and investments in drug developing companies (e.g. PentixaPharm, Myelo Therapeutics) to further round out the portfolio. Furthermore we are significantly increasing the capacities and capabilities of our radiopharmaceutical business. This includes not only the production of Yttriga and Galliapharm® as well as new products such as Lutetium-177 and Actinium-225 but also our abilities as a service provider for radiopharmaceutical endeavors. To this end we are also expanding into new locations. We already completed a new facility in the Boston, MA area and are looking to open new facilities in Jintan, China and Berlin, Germany in the next few years.
We are incredibly excited for the future and to see what will happen in the next 30 years. We hope we will have you at our side on this journey.
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