Method for the manufacture of highly purified 68Ge material for radiopharmaceutical purposes

A method for the manufacture of highly purified 68Ge material for radiopharmaceutical purposes,

• characterized by
• (a) adjusting a 68Ge-containing solution containing organic and metallic impurities to a HCl concentration of 6.5 to 12 M in order to convert the 68Ge contained in the solution, to a 68GeCl4-containing material;
• (b) loading the solution comprising the 68GeCl4-containing material obtained in step (a) to a resin matrix, wherein said resin matrix is a hydrophilic, macroporous, acrylic ester polymeric resin;
• (c) eluting said resin matrix with water in order to hydrolyze the 68GeCl4-containing material and to release 68Ge essentially in germanic acid form [68Ge(OH)4] from the 68GeCl4-containing material which was adsorbed to the resin matrix in step (b);
• (d) adjusting an eluate solution containing 68Ge obtained in step (c) to an HCl concentration <1M;
• and
• (e) loading said adjusted eluate solution of step (d), containing 68Ge essentially in the form of 68Ge(OH)4 to a cation exchange resin, wherein metal ion impurities are essentially quantitatively retained whereas the final 68Ge-containing product being essentially free of organic and metallic impurities, elutes through.