The medicinal and organometallic chemistry group of the Charles Friedel Laboratory has been developing therapeutic approaches based on organometallic compounds for many years. It has been found that these compounds may be used as cytotoxic agents or as radiopharmaceuticals for the treatment or diagnosis of diseases. The goal of the present work is the synthesis of organometallic analogs of biological substances (such as drugs) bearing a ferrocenyl, cymantrenyl, cerhetrenyl, or cyclopentadienyltricarbonyltechnetium group. We have especially focused our research on the preparation of Tc-99m derivatives and their purification. We have found suitable methods which are easy to handle and give high yields and high specific activities. These technetium compounds have been used for the study of in vivo biodistribution in animals.
