Our Mission
IASON has its origins in the trade of innovative medical technology products. As a specialist for the production of radioactive pharmaceuticals, IASON helped to bring the method of positron-emission-tomography (PET) to Austria in the late 1990ies. Today, IASON is one of the most innovative companies in the field and supplies specialized PET radiopharmaceuticals to private and public hospitals all across Europe.
Our Vision
IASON is headquartered in Graz and owns and operates two state-of-the-art radiopharmaceutical production sites in Austria (Linz and Klagenfurt). We are continuously enlarging the IASON production network by looking to strike up collaborations with new partners, especially in the form of Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) and License partners. The IASON Group also has a particular focus on R&D: the company policy is to bring a new product to Marketing Authorization every two years.

Our Guiding Principles
Production and delivery of our sensitive products meet highest quality standards, following national (e.g. AMBO 2009) and international regulations (e.g. GMP – Good Manufacturing Practice, GDP – Good Distribution Practice, ADR – transport of dangerous goods etc). Our employees are highly trained and following strict guidelines and internal procedures when carrying out their complex tasks. IASON is also certified according to the ISO 9001:2015 Management System.
IASON helps thousands
of patients afflicted
with cancer to live
longer and better lives!
Our Management
Mag. Christoph Artner, who founded IASON in 1994, is to this day the sole owner and Managing Director of all companies of the IASON group.
Our Culture
When IASON was founded and named, reference was made to Greek mythology. Therefore, despite not being active in the cultural field, IASON attaches great importance to cultural matters.
IASON: our name is derived from Greek mythology and designates the famous leader of the Argonauts. The story of IASON is the path of a hero and his fight for justice. His journey serves us as a shining example with regard to our entrepreneurial thinking and acting.
The journey of the Argonauts took place before the Trojan War and numerous heroic deeds were accomplished during this time. Aeson, who is supposed to succeed the throne in Iolcos, is expelled by his stepbrother Pelias. Aeson saves his young son Iason by bringing him to the Centaur Chiron.
Iason is taught in different areas of medicine and acquires extensive knowledge in the art of healing. By the time he is grown up, he returns to Iolcos to claim his heritage.
Iason reveals himself to be Aeson’s son, and Pelias agrees that, if Iason is able to obtain the Golden Fleece (alongside accomplishing other heroic deeds), he would regain his heritage.
This is exactly what the company IASON identifies with:
to strive every day for the well-being of the people and to master great challenges!
Competences
IASON‘s core competence lies in the development, production and distribution of radioactive pharmaceuticals for application in Positron-Emission-Tomography (PET). Our USPs are clearly our Marketing Authorizations (MAs) which we hold for our products in several European countries (see /products).
Our products Efdege®, IASOcholine®, IASOflu®, IASOdopa® and IASOglio® are mainly used for PET, a technique used for producing high-resolution images of cancer, but application today also extends to a growing number of non-oncological indications, e.g. the detection of micro-fissures of the spine in case of back-pain of ambiguous origin. PET radiopharmaceuticals are considered to be consumables required for positron-emission-tomography.
New PET radiopharmaceuticals are constantly being developed into a marketable commodity in the R&D department of the company group. The company policy is to bring a new product to Marketing Authorization every two years. IASON is the only producer world-wide who has received Marketing Authorizations (which is equivalent to the American FDA approval) for six different radiopharmaceuticals for PET.
Positron-emission-tomography (PET) has become one of the most important medical diagnosis methods, especially for cancer patients. PET is a nuclear medicine imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or picture of functional processes in the body. Its most common use is to detect and depict tumors in cancer patients (oncological indication).
The principle of the examination is as follows: the (weakly) radioactive isotope fluor-18 is connected to glucose (sugar) and then injected into the patient’s body. The substance enters the blood circuit and is distributed within the whole body. It is then particularly those cells with a high metabolic activity (that is, cells which require a lot of sugar, like e.g. cancerous cells) which show a high uptake of this substance. This enrichment in turn is then made visible and can be seen as a ‘hot spot’ or ‘activity’ in the body.
The resulting images enable doctors to plan further treatment and decide whether to perform an operation, continue with chemotherapy or initiate radiation therapy. Pet examinations conducted with IASON’s products therefore help to improve the quality of the lives of cancer patients, because a great impact on the following levels of patient treatment has been scientifically proven:
- Change of initial therapy concept (e.g. from expensive chemotherapy to less costly radiation therapy)
- Proof of efficacy (e.g. of expensive chemotherapy, which will be stopped if efficacy is not proved by PET/CT)
- Preparing more efficient surgical intervention, based on highly precise information about the extension of a cancer
Production
IASON owns and operates two state-of-the-art radiopharmaceutical production sites in Austria (Linz and Klagenfurt). Further sites are continuously added to the IASON production network by means of Contract Manufacturing Organizations (CMOs) and License partners.
A cyclotron is at the heart of the complex production process, which meets highest standards which are defined by national (e.g. AMBO 2009) and international law (e.g. GMP Good Manufacturing Practice, GDP Good Distribution Practice, ADR transport of dangerous goods).
Delivery
Our pharmaceutical products have a half-life of only about 2 hours – therefore, no storage is possible and in-time logistics are crucial. Hence, our pharmaceuticals are produced during the nighttime and then immediately distributed to the customers – mostly public, but also private hospitals – by road and air logistics.
The patients are ready and prepared for the examinations when the products arrive at the hospitals. Usually, one delivery contains different products for several examinations (multi-vial).
“Our PET radiopharmaceuticals are produced at the company-owned production sites in Linz and Klagenfurt at night and are delivered to the hospitals in the early morning hours. These products only have a half-life of about two hours, which means that after this time, half of the product has already disappeared. This timely production and delivery to the hospital is one of the key competences of IASON.”
Mag. Christoph Artner – Founder and Managing Director

Our Business Model
01

O-18 WATER
O-18 enriched water, an essential starting material for the production process, is produced at the IASON water tower.
02

Cyclotron
03

Tracer Synthesis
04

i. v. Injection
The finished tracers are delivered to the hospitals in the early morning hours, where the patients are already fully prepared for the PET Scanning.
05

PET/CT Scanning
After the injection, the patient must wait a pre-defined period of time for the tracer to be distributed in the body before the PET scanning can begin.
06

PET/CT Scan
The results of the PET scanning help doctors understand their patients’ condition and plan the next therapeutic steps.

Awards
IASON has been a three-time finalist in the European Business Awards (2014, 2017 and 2019), a prestigious business competition that rewards companies for their excellence in innovation and ethics.
The category in which IASON advanced to the European finals in 2020 was the ‘Customer and Market Engagement Award with turnover €0-25M’.
