Kennewick company could ease global isotope shortage
7/27/2009
KENNEWICK, WA - A Kennewick company may help take care of the potential global shortage of medical isotopes.
Advanced Medical Isotope Corp. plans to test and develop prototype compact devices next week to produce isotopes including molybdenum-99 that are normally produced in a nuclear reactor, Jim Katzaroff, the company's chief executive officer, said Friday.
The Kennewick company was mentioned in a recent New York Times story on the shortage of medical isotopes because of the closure of two aging nuclear reactors in Canada and Holland that provide the bulk of the world's supply of medical isotopes.
Medical isotopes are radioactive substances used in tiny quantities for diagnostic imaging and treatment of various diseases including cancer.
Katzaroff said next week's test of the compact devices will be at Idaho State University in Pocatello, noting that computer simulations for the test have been going on for two years. It's a collaboration between Advanced Medical Isotope, the University of Missouri and a publicly traded company that he declined to identify.
Katzaroff said the Kennewick facility produces another type of diagnostic isotope.
Next week's tests involves shooting a beam into a light-enriched uranium solution, he said.
It'll show the economic feasibility of producing sufficient quantities of molybdenum-99, most commonly used to produce technetium-99m, which is used in about 80 percent to 85 percent of the world's diagnostic imaging procedures.
"If everything goes OK, we hope to be in production in three years," Katzaroff said.
Advanced Medical Isotope's production system is expected to be cheaper and quicker, compared with isotope production in a traditional reactor, he said.
Medical isotopes support about 20 million clinical procedures annually in the U.S., but more than 90 percent of the isotopes are imported.
According to projections by the National Academy of Sciences, the U.S. requires at least 5,000 curies of molybdenum-99 each week to meet current demand, which is expected to grow.
The U.S. isotope supply is vulnerable because the federal government doesn't have an advanced reactor energy policy and program, said Carl Holder, nuclear consultant and a member of Citizens for Medical Isotopes, a local nonprofit group working to promote the national production of medical isotopes.
Most U.S. research money on advanced reactors is spent abroad in France, Russia and China. It's drying up talent in America, Holder said.
"This crisis of medical isotopes has been on the horizon for years," said Carl Cadwell, a Kennewick businessman who has invested in Advanced Medical Isotopes. It's about helping improve people's health, said Cadwell, who also owns Cadwell Laboratories and the Tri-City Court Club.
The company can fulfill a critical need using the talent and existing research facilities in the Tri-Cities, Cadwell said.
By Pratik Joshi, Herald staff writer
www.tricityherald.com
