Perma-Fix Achieves Tc-99m Scale Up Milestone

Perma-fix Medical S.A. said on Monday it has achieved a six curies radiation level for its technetium-99m production. Earlier this year, Perma-Fix said it needed to reconfigure its production process after realizing the market demand for the medical isotope used in millions of procedures annually called for a larger design. The latest milestone confirms Perma-Fix’s proprietary resin could withstand higher levels of radiation while still producing usable doses of Tc-99m. “Achieving these results at the 6 curie level are extremely gratifying and further reinforce what we had expected,”Perma-Fix CEO Stephen Belcher said in a statement. “We plan to conduct additional tests in the near future; but based on these preliminary results, we are extremely confident in our path forward. Importantly, we believe we are now in a position to meet the requirements of customers, not only in emerging markets, but also in North American and European markets.”

 

Perma-Fix is one of several companies vying for position in the market for technetium-99m, a medical isotope used in millions of procedures annually. With Canada set to stop government spending in 2016 on the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor, one of the world’s largest suppliers of molybdenum-99 and technetium-99m, the medical isotope industry anticipates a shortage in the market in the coming years. NRU’s anticipated shutdown has led to a slew of start-ups looking to fill the lucrative medical isotope void—eight-to-nine companies have already sent the Nuclear Regulatory Commission letters of intent to submit construction authorization licenses for a potential Mo-99 production facility.