June 21, 2016 – Beijing, China – HTA Co., Ltd. (HTA), the largest Chinese producer and distributor of radio-pharmaceuticals, and SHINE Medical Technologies (SHINE), a U.S. company dedicated to being the world leader in the safe, clean, affordable production of medical isotopes, announced today that the companies have entered into a strategic agreement for the supply of molybdenum-99 (moly-99). The supply agreement, which marks HTA’s first with a U.S. supplier of moly-99, demonstrates both companies’ ongoing commitment to ensuring that the medical imaging community has reliable and secure access to moly-99 to meet the needs of patients.
“HTA has a bold vision to grow nuclear medicine for the benefit of Chinese patients,” said Greg Piefer, CEO of SHINE. “I am thrilled that SHINE, one of the most exciting companies in nuclear medicine is teaming up with HTA to ensure the largest growth market in the world is well supplied with these life-saving products.”
“HTA, the largest distributor of medical isotopes in China, is a great company, playing a critical role in patient care, and we believe this is the beginning of a long, successful relationship between HTA and SHINE,” said Mr. Guo Chunsheng, President of HTA, about the agreement.
Under the terms of the agreement, SHINE will provide moly‑99 produced using its proprietary low enriched uranium (LEU)-solution technology for use in HTA’s technetium generators once SHINE’s facility becomes operational. SHINE’s LEU moly-99 manufacturing process does not require a nuclear reactor and is compatible with the world’s existing supply chain for moly-99.
Molybdenum-99 (moly-99) is a radioisotope that decays into the diagnostic imaging agent technetium‑99m (Tc-99m). Tc-99m is used in more than 40 million medical imaging procedures each year, primarily in stress tests to diagnose heart disease and bone scans to stage cancer.
Despite constituting approximately half of world demand for moly-99, the U.S. does not produce any moly-99 domestically and imports 100 percent of its supply from foreign nuclear reactors. The majority of these reactors are beyond their original design life and scheduled to be shut down in the coming years. Previous outages of these aging facilities have caused major isotope shortages, significantly impacting patient care.
SHINE was founded to deploy a safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly technology to produce medical isotopes, including moly‑99.
HTA Co., Ltd. is a national high-tech enterprise. The company mainly engages in research on radioisotope and radiation technology applications, and production and sales of related products. It produces more than 70 nuclides and 300 products, including diagnostic and therapeutic radio-pharmaceuticals, all kinds of radioactive sources, radiolabeled compounds and tracers, radioactive reference materials and so on, and supplies services including irradiation processing and detection of radioactive materials. Learn more at http://www.atom-hitech.com.
Based in Janesville, Wisconsin, SHINE deploys its safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly fusion technology in a stepwise approach. Its systems are used to inspect industrial components in aerospace, defense, energy and other sectors. SHINE’s proprietary medical isotope production processes create non-carrier-added lutetium-177 and are expected to create molybdenum-99. In the future, SHINE plans to scale its fusion technology to help solve one of energy’s toughest hurdles by recycling nuclear waste. Through a purpose-driven and phased approach, SHINE aims to generate fusion power to deliver clean, abundant energy that could transform life on Earth. Want to learn more about SHINE? Follow us on social media @shinefusion and sign up for our email newsletter to follow us on our journey!
Media Contact: info@shinefusion.com
