HTA and SHINE Announce Moly-99 Supply Agreement
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.
About 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.
About HTA Co., Ltd.
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.
About SHINE Medical Technologies, Inc.
Founded in 2010, SHINE is a development-stage company working toward becoming a manufacturer of radioisotopes for nuclear medicine. The SHINE system uses a patented, proprietary manufacturing process that offers major advantages over existing and proposed production technologies as it does not require a nuclear reactor, uses less electricity, generates less waste and is compatible with the nation’s existing supply chain for molybdenum-99. In 2014, SHINE announced the execution of molybdenum-99 supply agreements with GE Healthcare and Lantheus Medical Imaging. In 2015, with the help of Argonne National Laboratory, GE Healthcare demonstrated SHINE molybdenum-99 can act as a drop-in replacement for reactor-based moly-99. Learn more at http://shinemed.com.