Lantheus Medical Imaging is another leading manufacturer of Tc 99m-based radiopharmaceuticals. Vice President of Manufacturing and Supply Chain William Dawes talked to DOTmed about the shortage and the impact the closure and reopening of the HFR reactor has had on the overall supply of Molybdenum 99. Dawes said the outlook was "favorable" now that another reactor was in production.

"It's difficult to quantify how much of an impact on the U.S. market the Petten reactor being down has had because of all of the forces at play," said Dawes. "You have the status of the BR2 reactor, the status of the Osiris Reactor and the status of the Safari reactor. Given how those reactors are being scheduled and therefore running at any given time, that's how you can calculate the overall supply to the U.S. market, and the global market for that matter, and then the corresponding shortage when any of those machines are offline or shutdown."


While the HFR reactor represents a boost in global supply of molybdenum, it is not a solution to the ongoing scarcity of the medical isotope.

"We're extremely happy that this could bring some relief, but we're not out of the woods yet," said Norenberg. "We're going to have continued shortages for the foreseeable future until we bring on additional capacity."

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