[News-releases] TRIUMF Team Welcomes Isotope Investment

Tim Meyer tmeyer at triumf.ca
Thu Feb 28 06:04:02 PST 2013


News Release | For Immediate Release | February 28, 2013, 9:00 a.m. PST

TRIUMF TEAM WELCOMES ISOTOPE INVESTMENT

(Vancouver, BC) --- The CycloTech99 consortium welcomes the investment by
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) through the Isotope Technology Acceleration
Program (ITAP) and our partners in provinces, universities, and industry.
These funds represent a continued investment from NRCan resulting from our
earlier efforts during the Non-reactor-based Isotope Supply Contribution
Program (NISP). 

As announced in February 2012, CycloTech99 has demonstrated the capability
to produce the world’s most popular medical isotope, technetium-99m, on
medical cyclotrons already installed in Ontario and British Columbia.  Our
solution in ITAP includes regulatory approval and commercial roll out for a
truly national technetium production solution for the benefit of all
Canadians, by securing medical isotopes for our patients when the NRU
reactor in Chalk River ceases production in 2016.  We have a clear pathway
to address and stabilize this gap. 

Principal investigator Paul Schaffer leads the team and is head of TRIUMF’s
Nuclear Medicine Division. He said, “The federal government has invested in
our team to deliver an innovation for the benefit of all Canadians. We look
forward to delivering a domestic solution to the medical isotope crisis in
the near future.”

“The Harper Government is working to find new ways of producing medical
isotopes for the diagnosis of heart disease and cancer in Canadians,” said
the Honourable Joe Oliver, Canada’s Minister of Natural Resources. “The
project with TRIUMF is designed to enable medical centres across Canada to
produce their own key isotopes for local patients.”

The CycloTech99 consortium consists of the BC Cancer Agency, the Centre for
Probe Development and Commercialization, Lawson Health Research Institute,
and TRIUMF.  Several industrial partners are also involved and are
developing commercialization pathways consistent with the program
objectives.

-30-

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Timothy I. Meyer, Ph.D.
Head, Strategic Planning & Communications
TRIUMF -- Accelerating Science for Canada | 
    Un accélérateur de la démarche scientifique canadienne
4004 Wesbrook Mall | Vancouver, BC  V6T 2A3 | CANADA
Tel: 604.222.7674
Fax: 604.222.3791
Mobile (w/call fwd): 604.235.1925
E-mail: tmeyer at triumf.ca
WWW: http://www.triumf.ca
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