Cardinal Health warns clients of isotope shortage
7/9/2009
CHICAGO, July 9 (Reuters) - Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) warned customers it was "critically short" of a medical isotope used in scores of nuclear imaging tests due to the shutdown of a reactor in Canada that makes a third of the world's medical isotope supply.
In a July 7 letter to customers obtained by Reuters, the company's Nuclear Pharmacy Services unit in New York warned that on July 7-8 it would experience "the most significant shortage we have seen to date."
Cardinal Health spokesman Troy Kirkpatrick told Reuters the company has experienced sporadic shortages stemming from the May 17 shutdown of a nuclear reactor in Canada, but he said the company sees no financial impact from the shortage.
"Obviously, with the Canadian reactor down, it does impact the supply. But because of the arrangements we've made with our suppliers, we're looking at near-normal levels," he said.
Only five aging nuclear reactors produce molybdenum-99, the most commonly used medical isotope. Molybdenum-99 has a shelf life of just 67 hours, making it impossible to stockpile.
A medical isotope is a very small quantity of radioactive material used to perform nuclear medicine imaging tests. Isotopes are mixed with different solutions and injected into patients, where they give off energy that is read by special cameras.
Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd said on Wednesday it now expects its Chalk River nuclear reactor to be off line until late 2009, knocking out a key supplier of medical isotopes to North America. The United States has no domestic supply.
The shutdown has forced hospitals in the United States and Canada to ration supplies and delay medical tests.
Kirkpatrick said that aside from the shortages this week, the company expects supply problems on July 27, August 24 and 25 due to planned maintenance at two reactors in Europe.
Cardinal gets isotopes from two companies: privately held Lantheus Medical Imaging of North Billerica, Massachusetts, and Dublin-based Covidien Plc (COV.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), another major U.S. supplier.
Lantheus got most of its isotopes from the Canadian reactor, but has cut a deal with other suppliers to cope with the impact of the shutdown.
Covidien gets most of its isotopes from a reactor in Petten, the Netherlands, but the company has said it can get isotopes from reactors in Belgium, France and South Africa.
Both companies process medical isotopes from reactors into lead-lined containers called generators.
Cardinal's network of nearly 160 nuclear pharmacies use the generators to process the isotopes into injectable form that can be read by special cameras to test for heart disease or to see if cancer has spread.
Kirkpatrick said the network allows the company to reach 70 percent of all U.S. hospitals within two hours.
The company offers several heart imaging agents including Myoview and Cardiolite, which rely on technetium, a decay product of molybdenum 99.
Cardinal told New York-based clients in the letter it hoped the supply situation would ease this week.
For July 7-8, it canceled all bulk orders of technetium, and limited bulk doses of Cardiolite and Myoview.
The company also said it was forced to limit the number of doses for each customer to about half of their usual order.
The Society of Nuclear Medicine said last month an e-mail survey of its 375 members -- which include doctors and nuclear medicine technicians -- found 91 percent had been affected by the shortage, with 60 percent postponing procedures and 31 percent canceling some.
MDS Inc (MDS.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), whose MDS Nordion division has an exclusive agreement to distribute Chalk River's medical isotopes to companies such as Lantheus, said the closure of the Dutch Petten reactor, planned for mid-July, will last about four weeks.
Cardinal's shares closed down 13 cents to $29.70 on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Julie Steenhuysen; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
