Jeremy L. Dillon
RW Monitor
5/16/2014
Northwest Medical Isotopes announced late last week plans to construct a radioisotope production facility at Discovery Ridge Research Park in Columbia, Mo. to manufacture the production of molybdenum-99, an isotope used in a variety of medical procedures. With Canada set to stop government spending in 2016 on the National Research Universal (NRU) reactor in Canada, one of the world’s largest suppliers of moly-99 and technetium-99m, the medical isotope industry is expecting a shortage in the market in the coming years. “The United States uses half of the global supply of molybdenum-99, yet we have no commercial domestic producers,” said NWMI CEO Nicholas Fowler in a statement. “The mission and vision of Northwest Medical Isotopes is to provide a domestic, secure, and reliable supply of molybdenum-99 for medical diagnostics. At full capacity, the proposed facility could supply half of North America’s needs for molybdenum-99, eliminating potential shortages of the medical isotopes and having a major impact on the health of thousands of patients in need of these medical tests each week.”
The facility is expected to cost $50 million and begin construction in 2015, the company said. NWMI is hoping to leverage a network of university reactors around the United States as a way to supply the production facility in Columbia. The Discovery Ridge facility has ties to the University of Missouri system and would be closely located to the Missouri University Research Reactor, the most powerful research reactor located at any U.S. university. NWMI has also notified the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of its intent to apply for a construction license, the company said. NWMI selected a site at Discovery Ridge due to its proximity to University of Missouri, efficient transportation logistics, and the region’s skilled labor, the company said.
The potential halt in Moly-99 production has raised concerns within the federal government. The National Nuclear Security Administration has been helping to jump start domestic production of medical isotopes through a cost-sharing cooperative agreement with four companies to develop technology to produce Moly-99, the medical isotope used in 16 million medical procedures annually in the United States. The isotope has typically been produced outside the U.S. by government-subsidized efforts utilizing proliferation-sensitive HEU. Two of the companies, GE Hitachi and B&W, involved in the NNSA’s cost-sharing agreement have halted its development due to concerns of market viability, though.
