PM Launches Construction of Hadron Therapy Center in Kutaisi.
By Khatia Bzhalava
Wednesday, July 6, 2022
As Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced yesterday, the construction of the hadron therapy center has officially been launched in Kutaisi, Imereti region. According to Garibashvili, the prospective venue is an “unprecedented and unique” medical facility of “international scale” that would serve Georgian citizens and patients from across the South Caucasus. The Hadron Therapy Centre will begin accepting patients in 2024.
The Euro 1 billion project is entirely financed by the Cartu Foundation in cooperation with Ion Beam Applications (IBA), a leading company producing proton therapy equipment for treating cancer diseases. The center will be built on the base of the Kutaisi International University.
“It can be said without any exaggeration that Georgia will have a world-class academic and scientific research space. Georgian and foreign academic personnel - leading scientists of the world - will work in this space, with programs approved by the international advisory council of professors already in progress", the PM said.
As the PM noted, IBA has already built two ultra-modern cyclotrons for the hadron therapy Centre, one of which will be used for cancer treatment, and the other cyclotron will be designated as part of the venue’s scientific research laboratory for medical, nuclear, and radiation physics and biophysics studies. The hadron therapy center will be built by IDOM Consulting, a company with half a century of experience in designing relevant facilities in the field.
“This will be a project of unprecedented and unique significance in the region, a medical institution of international scale, both for our citizens and the residents of the region,” Garibashvili noted.
According to Pierre Mottet, the CEO of IBA, the company would be able to implement “many extraordinary projects” jointly with the Georgian side in the coming years as part of the project. The IBA representative also said the company was “very glad” to contribute to the project and to the treatment of cancer patients, including children, for whom hadron therapy provides particular benefits over other methods. According to him, hadron therapy is one of the best applications in terms of science, research, and technology development in the fields of physics, medicine, chemistry, and biology.
The ceremony of launching the construction of the facility was also attended by Education and Science Minister Mikheil Chkhenkeli, Chief Executive Officer of the Cartu Charity Foundation Nikoloz Chkhetiani, and Kutaisi International University Rector Aleksandre Tevzadze.
