QSA Global, a provider of radioisotope products, and Niowave, a Michigan-based producer of medical radioisotopes, announced that the companies will codevelop a scalable radium purification process using Niowave’s radium-226 processing technology to meet the demand for actinium-225, an alpha-emitter used in the treatment of cancer. According to the companies, the strategic partnership marks a significant advancement in the field of radiopharmaceutical technology, enhancing the supply chain for critical radioisotopes, including Ac-225.

Niowave uses a closed-loop cycle to produce high-purity Ac-225 and other alpha emitters from Ra-226 using a superconducting electron linear accelerator. According to the company’s website, the electron beam impinges on a photon converter to irradiate the Ra-226, inducing a photon-neutron reaction to Ra-225, which decays to Ac-225.

According to the Council on Radionuclides and Radiopharmaceuticals, more than 82,000 nuclear imaging procedures using nuclear medicine are performed throughout the world every day. To administer these vital medical procedures, radiopharmaceutical companies and hospitals rely on a handful of producers of medical radioisotopes.

NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes has completed construction and all equipment installation at its new facility in Beloit, Wis., to produce the medical radioisotope molybdenum-99 without the use of high-enriched uranium, the Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration announced last week.

The Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration has issued a cooperative agreement worth $13 million to Niowave, of Lansing, Mich., to support the commercial production of molybdenum-99, a critical isotope used in more than 40,000 medical procedures in the United States each day, including the diagnosis of heart disease and cancer.