Bracco Imaging

Bracco Imaging is the diagnostics arm of the privately held Bracco Group (Milan, Italy), one of the largest suppliers of contrast media worldwide: iodinated X-ray/CT contrast agents, gadolinium-based MRI contrast agents, and ultrasound microbubble contrast (SonoVue/Lumason). Its move into nuclear medicine came through acquisition rather than in-house discovery: in 2019 Bracco Imaging bought Blue Earth Diagnostics, a UK/US company built around fluciclovine F-18 (Axumin), an amino-acid PET tracer for recurrent prostate cancer, for $450 million plus an earn-out, giving Bracco its first commercialised radiopharmaceutical.

Blue Earth Diagnostics (id: blue-earth-diagnostics) operates as a semi-autonomous subsidiary under the Bracco Group umbrella and continues to expand the diagnostic oncology portfolio Bracco now depends on for nuclear medicine revenue, including PSMA-targeted radiohybrid (rhPSMA) imaging agents licensed from Scintomics and the Technical University of Munich. A sister company, Blue Earth Therapeutics, holds the worldwide rights to the therapeutic (177Lu-labelled) applications of the same rhPSMA chemistry, extending Bracco's nuclear medicine business from imaging into radioligand therapy for prostate cancer.

Bracco's core diagnostic imaging business (CT, MRI and ultrasound contrast) remains far larger by revenue than its nuclear medicine segment, but the group frames molecular imaging and theranostics as its main growth vector, positioning itself against GE HealthCare, Siemens Healthineers, Lantheus and Curium in nuclear pharmacy distribution and against Novartis and Telix in PSMA-targeted prostate cancer imaging and therapy.