Last week the American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2011 (AMIPA) finally became law, and America is planning on curtailing the use and export of highly enriched uranium (HEU) for the production of medical isotopes.
Coinciding with President Obama’s signing of the act into law, Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc. of N. Billerica, MA, is now making available its LEU TechneLite generator, the first technetium-99m (Tc-99m) generator in the US that uses molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) sourced from at least 95% low enriched uranium.
From the announcement:
With the introduction of the LEU TechneLite® generator, Lantheus fully supports the U.S. government’s global nuclear security strategy to encourage reliable supplies of medical radioisotopes produced from non-HEU sources. On January 2, 2013, President Obama signed into law the American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2011 (AMIPA) as part of the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. The AMIPA encourages the domestic production of LEU Mo-99 and provides for the eventual prohibition of the export of HEU from the United States. In addition, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) recently stipulated in the 2013 final Medicare payment rules, for Medicare Hospital Outpatients, that CMS will provide incremental reimbursement for every Tc-99m diagnostic dose produced from non-HEU sourced Mo-99. Lantheus’ LEU TechneLite® generator satisfies the new reimbursement requirements under the CMS 2013 rules.
As a leader in the radiopharmaceutical business, Lantheus has secured the most globally diversified and balanced Mo-99 supply chain in the industry, and receives the medical isotope from four of the five major processors and seven of the eight associated reactors.
In 2012, Lantheus announced expanded access to LEU-sourced Mo-99 with an extended agreement with NTP Radioisotopes in South Africa. Under the five-year agreement, Lantheus will receive an increasing supply of Mo-99 produced from LEU targets from NTP Radioisotopes (NTP) and Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). Additionally, Lantheus announced continued supply of Mo-99 from Nordion, which will be used in the production of the company’s non-LEU TechneLite® generators.
Flashbacks: New South African Source for Molybdenum-99 to Soothe Supply Worries in Medical Radioisotope Market; Project Aims for Medical Isotope Production Without Use of Nuclear Reactors; U of Wisconsin to Build Reactorless Mo-99 Medical Isotope Generation Facility; Medgadget Meets CEO of EndoMagnetics, a Cancer Staging Company
Press release: Lantheus Medical Imaging Introduces Low-Enriched Uranium (LEU) TechneLite® Generator
Product page: TechneLite…