Isotope Market

Tc-99m is the most widely used medical isotope in the world.

  • Allows medical practitioners to image internal body organs.
  • Used in 80-85% of the 25M diagnostic nuclear medical procedures each year.
  • Common procedures include: cardiac imaging; cancer detection bone scans; gastrointestinal issues; and imaging of the brain, kidney, spleen and infections.
  • The radioisotope market in Europe alone is expected to reach $1.6B in 2017, up from $1.1B in 2012.
  • Severe worldwide shortages in the supply chain, disrupting medical procedures.
  • Scheduled closure of the NRU reactor in 2016 and the OSIRIS reactor in France in 2018 will have a major impact on the manufacturing and supply of these isotopes.
  • Nearly all of the world’s supply comes from the thermal fission of highly enriched uranium (HEU) targets in a small number of highly specialized reactors.
  • Current process is costly and unreliable source of radioactive material and raises serious proliferation concerns
 Articles
March 27, 2014 Perma-Fix Medical Announces Validation of Medical Isotope Technology With Leading International Reactor Operators
February 19, 2014 Perma-Fix unit to produce Technetium-99
November 12, 2013 The Conversation : “Supply of medical isotopes had dangerously decayed”
February 6, 2012 The New York Times Radioisotope Recipe Lacks One Ingredient: Cash
Article mentions Perma-Fix
Apr-Jun; 37 2012 Journal of Medical Physics, “Technetium-99m production issues in the United Kingdom”
J Med Phys. 2012 Apr-Jun; 37(2): 66–71.
(Christopher H. Green)
June 3, 2011 Press release - Perma-Fix completes initial development of new process to safely and cost effectively manufacture Tc-99m
2011 – 2012 Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology Executive Summary – Radiation Technologies and Applications