Nuclear plant in Clarington partnering with Texas firm to process life-saving medical isotopes

A Texas radiopharmaceuticals company has signed on with Ontario Power Generation subsidiary Laurentis Energy to use technology developed and installed at the Darlington Nuclear plant to process medical isotopes.

Colibri Isotopes have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to use Laurentis’s Target Delivery System, designed and developed in partnership with BWXT Medicals, to produce “unmatched yields” of high-quality medical isotopes. Colibri will use its own unique technology to process these isotopes for the commercial market.

Laurentis’s Target Delivery System, an isotope irradiation system specifically engineered to take advantage of the unique design of CANDU reactors, is installed on Darlington’s Unit 2 reactor. Using this system, Laurentis produces and harvests isotopes while the nuclear reactor remains online without disrupting the generation of clean energy.

“As a company with experience, expertise and cutting-edge technology at our fingertips, we have a responsibility to advance the production of life-saving medical isotopes for the global medical community,” said Laurentis CEO Jason Van Wart. “We look forward to working with Colibri to pursue the opportunity to irradiate a long-term reliable supply of high quality, life-saving medical isotopes.”

Colibri founder Alexander Khasin said the Laurentis system, when combined with the “unique capabilities” of his company’s patented target technology, “opens up new production possibilities to address the shortage of crucial isotopes in the fight against cancer. This collaboration will provide the medical community with the resources needed to enhance treatment outcomes and save lives.”

Laurentis currently produces molybdenum-99, which transforms to technetium-99 metastable, used by medical professionals in more than 40 million procedures each year to detect illnesses like cancer and heart disease.

The company will also use its system to produce yttrium-90 (Y-90), an injected radiopharmaceutical used for treatment of advanced liver cancer and other large inoperable tumors, beginning mid-2025.

Colibri, founded in 2018, is developing new technologies for promising medical isotopes production for therapy and diagnostic purposes. Colibri’s expectation is to bring any medical isotope to the place where it is needed with an uncomplicated and direct supply chain, giving security and reliability of supply to its clients.

Canada currently produces half of the world’s supply of medical isotopes – with manufacturing centred at nuclear power plants at Darlington and Bruce – and announced a new alliance this spring to support the expansion of isotope production, processing, and distribution and work to resolve challenges in medical isotope supply that affect patients fighting cancer and other diseases.

The alliance is a joint initiative between Clarington, the Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council, Ontario Power Generation (OPG) and its subsidiary Laurentis Energy Partners, in partnership with RS McLaughlin Durham Cancer Centre in Oshawa, Actineer, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories and leaders from the isotope industry, healthcare, academia, and government.

Darlington Nuclear

Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster, who co-chairs the alliance, said in May the partnership will “leverage the expertise and assets” in the region to advance the isotope sector, a sentiment shared by Van Wart, who is Foster’s co-chair on the alliance.

“Bringing these groups together will help ensure the security and reliability of Canada’s isotope supply chain and position the region as a global leader in isotope innovation and production,” he said.

Laurentis will begin producing a nuclear medical isotope at Darlington Nuclear next year that will help treat liver cancer, the fourth most common cause of cancer deaths in the world. It’s estimated to affect 4,700 Canadians, with the diagnosis leading to fatalities in about three-quarters of those suffering with the disease.

Currently more than 40 per cent of all single-use medical devices produced globally are sterilized with cobalt-60 and more than 70 per cent of the world’s supply of cobalt-60 is produced at Canadian nuclear power plants.

As well, 90 per cent of the cobalt-60 market is refined here and about 60 per cent of the world’s market of iodine-125 is produced at a nuclear facility at McMaster University in Hamilton.

Central and Eastern Ontario Isotope Alliance launch group