Covidien Announces a New Source for Vital Medical Isotopes

The Maria research reactor, located approximately 30 km southeast of Warsaw (Poland), first operated from 1975 until 1985, when it was taken off line for a complete redesign; the reactor resumed normal operations in 1993. Maria is thus considered a relatively new reactor, compared with the other five aging reactors that supply most of the world's medical isotopes.

The announcement was made just two days before the High Flux Reactor (HFR) in Petten (The Netherlands) was scheduled to begin a six-month shutdown for planned repairs. The remaining operating reactors supplying Covidien are the BR2 reactor in Belgium, the Osiris reactor in France, and the Safari reactor in South Africa. Canada's National Research Universal (NRU) reactor has been shut down for repairs since May 2009. When both were operating, the HFR and NRU reactors typically provided approximately 65% of the world's supply of medical isotopes.

"This is an historic agreement. It is the first time in decades that a new reactor has been brought into the global supply chain for medical isotopes,” said Timothy R. Wright, president of the pharmaceuticals division of Covidien. "We are excited that we will now be working together to provide more than a million patients around the globe with access to a critical medical isotope during this serious shortage.”

"We are pleased to be cooperating with Covidien to use the scientific advancements we have made here at the Institute of Atomic Energy and the Maria research reactor to meet the healthcare needs of patients throughout the world at such a critical time,” said Professor Krzysztof Wieteska, Ph.D., director of IAE POLATOM.

^99mTc is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99, meaning that it does not change into another element (transmute) upon its decay. ^99mTc is a gamma ray emitting isotope used in nuclear medicine imaging procedures such single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), and is well suited to the role since it emits readily detectable 140 keV gamma rays, which is close to the wavelength emitted by conventional X-ray diagnostic equipment. Half-life for gamma emission is six hours, meaning that 93.7% of ^99mTc decays to ⁹⁹Tc in just 24 hours. This short half-life of the isotope allows for scanning procedures, which collect data rapidly, but keep total patient radiation exposure low.

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Polish Instiute of Atomic Energy