SHINE Medical Technologies
 |
|
| Industry | Radiopharmaceutical |
|---|---|
| Founded | June 2010 |
| Founder | Gregory Piefer |
| Headquarters | Janesville, Wisconsin |
| Website | http://ShineMed.com |
SHINE Medical Technologies, is a private corporation based in Janesville, Wisconsin USA which is building a facility to produce radioactive isotopes for medical applications. SHINE is an acronym for Subcritical Hybrid Intense Neutron Emitter.
In 2009, the supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), a precursor to technetium-99m used in more than 30 medical imaging procedures, fell short of demand due to maintenance idling of a pair of research reactors, one located in the Netherlands, forcing doctors to use more dangerous isotopes. By 2016, the largest global supplier of the isotope, a Canadian research reactor, was scheduled to go idle. In 2010, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a part of the United States Department of Energy, began funding a number of method development ventures aimed at ensuring that shortages in the United States could be avoided as well as reducing the use of highly enriched uranium and with it lowering the risk of nuclear proliferation.
SHINE was among a handful of early recipients of funds from the NNSA program and received US$13,900,000 through it as of 2014. SHINE has also relied on venture capital funding, having secured up to US$125,000,000 from Deerfield Management beginning in October 2014.
The 2014 market for medical isotopes was estimated to be about US$600,000,000 per year. Several companies in addition to SHINE are vying for part of this market, and the need for redundancy in production will support a number suppliers beyond the minimum needed to meet current demand.
The company plans to start production scale generation of isotope in 2018, having pushed the proposed start date back several times, it has secured a number of supply agreements predicated on this start date.
In addition to supplying Mo-99, SHINE has secured a US$150,000 National Science Foundation grant to develop production methods for Iodine-131, used in the treatment of Graves' disease and certain cancers.
...
Wikipedia