Certain operations and tests at Mater Dei Hospital are being postponed because of problems importing from earthquake-hit Turkey a substance used to screen for cancerous cells.
The radioactive tracer is used during PET/CT scans primarily to diagnose cancer patients and monitor the effectiveness of their treatment. The scans cannot go ahead without the tracer.
While the problem with importing the tracer is temporary and should be resolved by next week, it highlights Malta’s reliance on importing a substance which it could create on the island.
The government owns a multi-million euro machine called a cyclotron that creates the tracer but has been left dormant for years.
In light of the devastation caused by Monday’s quake, the Turkish authorities have been unable to export the tracer as they rightly concentrate efforts and energy on their country.
Malta has relied on importing tracer, previously from Rome and now mainly from Turkey.
The radioactive tracer has a short shelf-life and must be used within hours of being produced in the cyclotron. It cannot be stored so it has to be ordered to arrive in time for scheduled medical appointments.
In March 2021, Times of Malta revealed that the cyclotron was not being used and was “still in boxes” at the Life Sciences Park.
The machine was purchased for €4 million by Vitals Global Healthcare, which received more than €50 million from the government to run three state hospitals in 2016. In 2018, Vitals transferred its hospitals concession to the US group Steward Health Care.
The cyclotron itself became the property of Mtrace, a company that was owned by Steward and Andrea Marsili, the general manager and managing director of Curium, the same Rome company that supplied Mater Dei Hospital with the tracer.
A year ago, on January 8, the government-owned Malta Enterprise purchased Steward’s 237,000 shares – the majority – in Mtrace for a nominal fee of €1 each, according to the Malta Business Registry. The rest of the shares, 12,500, were retained by Marsili.
A spokesperson for Steward Health Care has confirmed that it had transferred the cyclotron asset to the government of Malta and that it “has made no profit from this transaction”.
A Malta Enterprise spokesperson had said: “The cyclotron belongs to the government.”
In June last year, Malta Enterprise said the cyclotron machine would start being used at the beginning of 2023. Works have now started. However, the process to determine who will operate the multi-million-euro machine will only start once the facility that houses it is completed.
Sources said Malta lacks the expertise to run the cyclotron, so an operator would have to be hired from abroad.
One of the obstacles to finding an operator willing to take on the task is the financial feasibility of running the facility.