SHINE Medical Technologies, which plans by 2019 to open a medical radioisotope production facility in Janesville, Wis., said Tuesday it has reached a supply agreement with China’s largest distributor of radio-pharmaceuticals.
SHINE will provide China’s HTA Co. Ltd. with molybdenum-99, a medical isotope that decays into technetium-99m, which is used in imaging procedures for cancer, heart disease, and bone and kidney disease. The Wisconsin company is vying with several other companies to become America’s first commercial producer of moly-99 in more than 25 years. Supply of the radioisotope is uncertain in the Western Hemisphere, with Canada planning to shut down its National Research Universal reactor in March 2018.
SHINE through its its proprietary low-enriched uranium-solution technology will produce moly‑99, which HTA will use to generate technetium, according to SHINE’s announcement. The U.S. company also noted the ability to manufacture the isotope without a nuclear reactor.
Katrina Pitas, SHINE’s vice president of business development, declined to disclose exact terms of the deal on Wednesday.
“HTA has a bold vision to grow nuclear medicine for the benefit of Chinese patients,” SHINE CEO Greg Piefer said in a statement. “I am thrilled that SHINE, one of the most exciting companies in nuclear medicine is teaming up with HTA to ensure the largest growth market in the world is well supplied with these life-saving products.”
HTA President Guo Chunsheng said, “We believe this is the beginning of a long, successful relationship between HTA and SHINE.”
SHINE in February won Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval to build its $100 million radioisotope production facility. The company, which plans to submit its operating license application to the NRC in 2017, hopes to break ground on its 57,000-square-foot facility in 2017 and produce test batches in 2018.
NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes has announced plans to begin commercial moly-99 production at the University of Missouri Research Reactor in the first half of 2017. Another company, Northwest Medical Isotopes, plans to build a $70 million, privately funded facility at the Discovery Ridge research park in Columbia, Mo. Finally, Coqui RadioPharmaceuticals hopes to begin production at its own $400 million facility in Alachua, Fla., in late 2020 or early 2021.
