British Closed Nuclear Centres Partnership

"Isotope production in former Soviet Union Republics" - the comments of Jonathan Perks, CNCP Expert

Isotopes Seminar in Almaty, May 2008

Radioisotope Markets

Several foreign specialists took part in the seminar on isotope production held by CNCP in May 2008. David Drummond, managing director of the Canadian company isoSolutions, gave a presentation on global isotope markets.

The company isoSolutions markets a wide variety of nuclear medicine products and analyzes the global markets that could be accessed with radioisotopes produced in Central Asia.

Nuclear Medicine is expanding with more sophisticated diagnostic techniques and exciting new therapeutic applications. Globally, approximately 40 million nuclear medicine procedures are performed each year. PET (positron emission tomography) applications are growing at a rate of 80% per annum while non-PET nuclear medicine applications are growing at 9% per annum, with therapeutic applications increasing at even more dramatic rates.

The requirements for medical radioisotopes tend to move through a cycle of research, clinical trials and then commercial utilizing, with order-of-magnitude increases at each transition to the next phase. So future requirements will be significantly higher than current needs, and the reactor situation in Europe and North America – including the recent cancellation of the MAPLE reactor program in Canada – indicate that there is a significant role to be played by facilities in Central Asia in the supply of critical raw material radioisotopes if nuclear medicine is going to continue to develop and expand.

There are major challenges to be addressed – such as regulatory requirements and logistics – but opportunities are great and the attendees at the seminar have the potential to be active participants in the global medical radioisotope supply chain. Companies like isoSolutions and CTC are ready to work with the institutes to develop this potential.

David Drummond,
Managing director of the Canadian company isoSolutions

Participants at the seminar discussed opportunities to produce medical isotopes of interest to U.S. and other international markets.

The USA accounts for 2/3rds or more of the current medical isotope market but currently imports 80-90% of its needs from other countries, especially Canada. The ability of the USA to produce its own isotopes is strongly declining, as reactors continue to be decommissioned, government-sponsored isotope production continues to be curtailed, and the stockpile of stable feedstock isotopes is not being replenished. Even more important, the impending shutdown of the Canadian NRU reactor and the cancellation of the replacement MAPLE reactors will accelerate the decline in isotope availability.

These problems in North America provide a nearterm opportunity for nuclear reactors in the former Soviet Union Republics to fill in the gap in North America and develop a sustainable and highly profitable market. Two approaches can be foreseen. Institutes in the former Soviet Union Republics could either team up with big and often anticompetitive pharmaceutical companies, or alternatively partner with small, aggressive and nimble companies such as Curative Technologies Corporation (CTC) and IsoSolutions.

Additionally, there are a number of isotopic areas where former Soviet Union Republics institutes can focus:

Currently in demand and high volume marketed isotopes such as Molybdenum-99.
Isotopes of growing commercial interest.
Isotopes foreseen to be highly desirable but not currently available, especially alpha emitters.

Examples of isotopes of interest to CTC in these three categories are: