Redefining the global isotope supply philosophy:
In 2009, the world was recovering from widespread shortages of 99mTc - an isotope used in ~40 million nuclear medicine scans around the world every year - when the Canadian federal government announced the imminent cessation of isotope production activities at the Chalk River reactor. In response, TRIUMF (along with BC Cancer, the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization, and Lawson Health Research) teamed together to develop a novel, high-powered target hardware solution capable of enabling the production of commercial-scale quantities of 99mTc using local, hospital-based cyclotrons. This technology has been licensed to a new spin-off company, ARTMS Products, Inc., which obtained US$3M in venture funding from Quark Ventures in December 2017. Cyclotron-produced 99mTc is now being implemented in the United Kingdom, with additional jurisdictions soon to follow. This same hardware has since been adapted to allow for the production of 68Ga, 64Cu, 89Zr and other isotopes of interest.