NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, LLC, a global player in the development, production and commercialization of radiopharmaceuticals used for medical imaging and therapeutic applications, announced recently that it has been awarded $37 million in cooperative agreement funds with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (DOE/NNSA) as part of an industry outreach initiative to establish reliable domestic molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) production without the use of highly enriched uranium (HEU). NorthStar will use funds from the award to complete its neutron capture technology program and continue development and expansion of its accelerator production program.
Both projects support non-uranium based,
environmentally friendly production of the important medical radioisotope
Mo-99. DOE/NNSA will provide $16.3M in funding for the neutron capture project and $20.7M for the
accelerator project. NorthStar will also be required to provide an equal amount
of matching funds. The awards will also be used in continuing the development
of enhancements for the FDA-approved and commercially available RadioGenix®
System (technetium Tc-99m generator). The RadioGenix System uses reliable,
domestic, non-uranium based Mo-99 to supply physicians and patients with
technetium-99m (Tc-99m). Mo-99 is the parent radioisotope of Tc-99m, the most
widely used medical imaging radioisotope, which is used in 40,000 U.S. patients daily.
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Source: NorthStar