Deputy Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes is scheduled today to visit two Wisconsin companies that aim to help re-establish the United States’ production capacity for the medical isotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).
Menezes will tour facilities at SHINE Medical Technologies in Janesville and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes in Beloit, and meet with executives from both companies, according to an Energy Department press release Tuesday.
“During his visit, the Deputy Secretary will see full size Mo-99 target solution vessels, driving accelerators, integrated safety systems, and the prototype Thermal Cycling and Absorption Process for separating deuterium and tritium gases,” the release says.
Following confirmation by the Senate, Menezes in August was elevated from energy undersecretary to the No. 2 position at the Energy Department.
NorthStar is currently the only domestic producer of Mo-99, using its RadioGenix System to generate technetium-99 from the decay of the isotope. It began production in late 2018, nearly 30 years after the United States lost its domestic manufacturing capacity. For decades starting in 1989 the nation relied solely on foreign sources of Mo-99.
Technetium-99m is used widely for medical diagnostic imaging, employed in roughly 40,000 procedures daily in the United States, DOE said. The Energy Department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has provided $160 million to SHINE, NorthStar, and other companies as part of its mission to promote domestic production that does not require weapon-grade uranium. It is readying another set of cooperative agreements, worth a total of $35 million.
“The Deputy has been in office officially for about a month, and he requested a presentation by NorthStar management and a tour of NorthStar facilities to better understand how the NNSA Mo-99 program has been a positive influence in resolving the U.S. healthcare system’s long-standing reliance on foreign sources of Mo-99, sources that have proved to be unreliable since 2009,” the company said in a statement Thursday.
NorthStar does not discuss sales figures, but said “a very significant number of patient doses have been used for imaging procedures.” The company is taking additional steps to increase its output, including selling concentrated Mo-98 as soon as January 2021 upon approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Management also anticipates regulatory approval in 2022 for a 20,000-square-foot isotope processing facility in Beloit, which will augment its current processing capacity via a reactor at the University of Missouri. Construction and equipment preparation continue for an isotope production facility in Beloit that would employ separate electron accelerator technology.
SHINE, meanwhile, has applied for a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to operate its Mo-99 production plant, which will employ an accelerator-based neutron-source system. In May, the company said the NRC was on track to issue the license by October 2021. It expects to achieve commercial output the following year.
Last week, SHINE said it had completed an $80 million financing round. Fidelity Management and Research Co. was the top investor in the Series C, according to a SHINE press release.
The company did not respond to a query regarding Menezes’ visit and the latest financing round.
