SHINE Medical Technologies announced Monday that it has selected nuclear medicine industry veteran Martyn Coombs as a part-time strategic adviser.
The announcement comes as the company advances toward the start of construction of its 43,000-square-foot facility in Janesville, Wis., for production of medical isotopes including molybdenum-99. Moly-99 decays into technetium-99m, which is used widely for medical diagnostic imaging.
“Really we’re looking for his insight from more than 15 years of being in the industry,” in business areas such as strategic partnerships, Katrina Pitas, SHINE’s vice president for business development, said in a telephone interview.
Coombs is CEO of ImaginAB, a medical imaging company based in Inglewood, Calif. He previously was president of Jubilant DraxImage and an executive with Amersham/GE Healthcare. He is a contractor rather than an employee of SHINE, Pitas said. The company has six advisers in total, separate from its board of directors and management.
SHINE anticipates beginning construction of the facility this year, though a specific date has not been set, Pitas said. It plans to produce test batches of isotopes in 2018 and to begin commercial production in 2019. The facility has been reported to cost $100 million, though Pitas said she could not discuss the price tag.
SHINE is among several U.S. companies that intend to help fill the gap in moly-99 production left last year after Canada’s National Research Universal reactor stopped producing the isotope on a regular basis.
