On November 4, Zevacor announced that it selected a firm to supply their new cyclotron. This updates the story I wrote for Pharmaceutical Commerce under the headline, “New higher-capacity cyclotron to stabilize isotope supply.” In that story I cited IBA Group and Best Medical International and Best Cyclotron Systems as possible sources; IBA was chosen.

For this outside the company’s biopharma orbit, Zevacor Molecular based in Fishers, In

d., the company’s 70-MeV (as in million electron volts) commercial cyclotron is reportedly to be the first and only 70-MeV unit dedicated to medical use in the United States. Upon startup, which is planned for the fall of 2016, it’ll primarily produce Strontium 82 (Sr-82), which in turn produces Rubidium (Rb-82) injected into patients for cardiac imaging. Start-up is planned by the fall of 2016.

The big deal, John Zehner, COO of Zevacor told me, is that national labs from Brookhaven and Los Alamos to those in Canada, South Africa, Russia and elsewhere produce much of the needed supplies only “when they have time” leading to an impossible situation by healthcare providers to “keep the supply even so the product is available day in and day out.”

Until the fall of 2016, here’s wishing the patients in your life a stable supply of isotopes.