Karl Herchenroeder
RW Monitor
1/8/2016
SHINE Medical Technologies has raised $11.5 million of debt financing, bringing the total fundraising for its planned $100 million radioisotope production facility planned in Janesville, Wis., to nearly $50 million.
Katrina Pitas, SHINE’s vice president of business development, confirmed Tuesday’s debt financing filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as fundraising totals, which include both private and public sources.
The Janesville plant, which is expected to satisfy more than half the U.S. demand for the medical isotope molybdenum-99, is scheduled for completion in 2018 and would employ about 150 people. Molybdenum-99 is used in medical imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, and bone and kidney disease, and the U.S. reportedly consumes half the global supply of the radioisotope. Moly-99 supply is uncertain because Canada’s National Research Universal reactor is scheduled to permanently shut down in March 2018, leaving the Western Hemisphere without a supplier.
On Dec. 15, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission completed a public hearing for the potential issuance of SHINE’s construction permit, which the company expects in the first quarter 2016. NRC staff concluded that SHINE is both technically and financially capable of the carrying out plan, and all environmental concerns have been addressed so far.
On Monday, the NRC’s public comment period for another radioisotope facility concluded. Northwest Medical Isotopes plans to build a $50 million radioisotope facility at Discovery Ridge Research Park in Columbia, Mo. Northwest expects to satisfy half of North America’s moly-99 needs, with operation tentatively scheduled to start this year.
NRC spokesman David McIntyre said he has received comments about Northwest’s plans via mail. One comment came from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 7, he said, adding that it could be some time before the hard copies of the comments are made available electronically.
