Addressing the Supply Shortage of Molybdenum-99

NorthStar is one of four companies in the U.S. granted a Cooperative Agreement from the National Nuclear Security Administration to develop a domestic molybdenum-99 supply.  We are focused on solving the supply shortage through a two-step approach to the problem:

Technegen GeneratorNorthStar's Short-term Solution:

Partner with Missouri University Research Reactor (MURR) to produce molybdenum-99 using natural molybdenum

  • MURR facility has an uptime of >90% and is one of the most reliable reactors in the world.
  • NorthStar/MURR will be capable of delivering up to 3,000 6 day Ci of molybdenum-99

NorthStar's Long-term Solution:

Construction of a production facility in Beloit, WI, to produce molybdenum-99 using multiple linear accelerators.

  • Will produce 50% of the US requirement of molybdenum-99 by end of 2014.
  • Licensing of the Beloit facility will be under the State of Wisconsin regulation as an agreement state.
  • Redundant power and spare linear accelerators mean downtime will be transparent to the customer

NorthStar's Technegen™ Generator System

NorthStar's two-step solution to the molybdenum-99 supply problem utilizes a patented new technology known as TechneGen™ that can process molybdenum-99 yielding USP compliant technetium-99m.

Current & Proposed MO-99 Supply Chain
Northstar MO-99 Supply Chain

Attributes of TechneGen™:

  • TechneGen™ produces >90% of the theoretical yield vs. 75% to 90% yield of current generators.
  • TechneGen™ pools the low activity sources and continues to produce useable amounts of technetium- 99m, thus increasing its yield well beyond the yield of current generators.
    (Current generators are returned to the manufacturer with unused technetium-99m capacity that is typically not recovered because of low activity.)
  • TechneGen™'s automated process ensures product batch-to-batch consistency and USP compliance.
  • TechneGen™ enables recycling of raw materials.
  • TechneGen™'s architecture and processes can be extended to other medically significant radioisotopes, including, to mention a few:
    • Actinium-225/bismuth-213
    • Germanium-68/gallium-68
    • Tungsten-188/rhenium-188

TechneGen™ is key to NorthStar's New Drug Application to the FDA for production of Technetium-99m.

Supply Chain Influence

All current US molybdenum-99 supply and two of the companies working with the DOE/NNSA follow this supply chain model. The cost to produce the uranium targets and disposal of the waste is expected to increase the costs of molybdenum-99 in the near future.

NorthStar is handling the molybdenum- 99 supply chain delivering to the nuclear pharmacy with a single cost of goods sold and a single overhead structure.  Combining this fact along with an inexpensive raw material cost and a reusable generator system provides NorthStar with a powerful competitive advantage in the market place.

Molybdenum-99 Production Waste

  Highly Enriched
Uranium ("HEU")
produced Mo99 (3)		 Low Enriched
Uranium ("LEU")
produced Mo99 (3)		 Mo99 Production
Processes (4,5)
Uranium including
U238, U235, U234 (1)		 Yes Yes No
Plutonium-239 (1) Yes Yes No
Fission products Yes Yes No
Alpha emitting waste Yes Yes No
Long-lived
radioisotopes (2)		 Yes Yes Yes

 

  1. Half-lives: U238, 4.5 billion years; U235, 704 million years; U234, 246,000 years; Pu239, 24,110 years
  2. Includes long-lived technetium-99
  3. The waste included in these two raw material approaches are difficult to dispose of and the cost associated with disposal is significant.
  4. The cost to dispose of NorthStar's waste is significantly lower than processes using uranium based raw material.
  5. NorthStar has the ability to recover its raw material for reuse, thus reducing the cost of its raw material and reducing the volume of material to be handled as waste.