From the June 2015 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine


NorthStar is developing two technologies for generating moly-99 out of the stable isotope Mo-98; a “neutron capture” process utilizing the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) in Columbia, Missouri, and an electron accelerator process. In May, the company issued a statement announcing the first successful testing and shipment of the MURR Mo-99 to their facility in Wisconsin, calling it a “milestone” toward their goal of being the first commercial U.S. producer of the crucial SPECT isotope in over 25 years.

Last August, NorthStar signed a nonexclusive letter of intent with GE Healthcare to provide the company with Mo-99. SHINE, which utilizes linear accelerators and low enriched uranium to create Mo-99 isotopes as a fission product, has entered supply agreements with GE and Lantheus Medical. Both SHINE and NorthStar have to become fully operational and market certified before any isotopes can be distributed – objectives SHINE hopes to satisfy by early 2018.


Greg Piefer, founder and CEO of SHINE, said in a statement that the partnership, “signals the beginning of a new era for the production of radioisotopes in North America, in which a private producer can thrive.”

Unlike when using a cyclotron to directly produce Tc-99m, the longer half-life of Mo- 99 means producers of the parent isotope could theoretically engage more actively in the marketplace.

While Zebrick points out that neither of these strategies have been approved for commercial use by either country, he and some colleagues have met with the FDA, and he says the administration was receptive to the cyclotron solution. “Canadians are close to submitting their cyclotron strategy to Canada Health,” he says, “and the FDA has agreed to receive a copy of that submission and let it serve as reference for them.”

Sodium fluoride as alternative to Tc-99m?
Sodium fluoride for PET imaging has emerged as a valuable diagnostic tool for bone imaging – one of the indications Tc-99m SPECT imaging is frequently used for. Some experts speculate that the comparative availability of sodium fluoride to hospitals could make it a viable imaging alternative to Mo-99.

Cancers most likely to metastasize to the bone, such as breast, prostate, lung, thyroid and kidney, “that’s where we’re seeing increased utilization of sodium fluoride,” says Edgar Alvarez, senior marketing manager of Siemens’ PETNET Solutions, a company offering a large national network of sodium fluoride.

According to Atcher, imaging with sodium fluoride is nothing new. “In the old days of nuclear medicine before we started using these fairly elegant cameras to generate images, we actually did use it to do bone scans, but with a fairly crude imaging system,“ he says.

June 2015 Magazine

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