Coqui RadioPharmaceuticals Moves Closer to Moly-99 Production

Coqui RadioPharmaceuticals Corp. announced that it has completed a land transfer agreement with the University of Florida Foundation. The company now has a 25-acre parcel of land on which it will be able to build a molybdenum-99 production facility.

As quoted in the press release:

Medical isotopes are used in a variety of medical tests, including cancer screening. The most widely used medical isotope in the world is Technicium-99m (Tc-99m), which is derived from Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99). Tc-99m is used in approximately 50,000 medical diagnostic procedures per day in the U.S. Because of a very short life, the isotope needs to be used in patients quickly after it is created. A major challenge for the industry is that the isotope is not produced in the U.S., and when a production facility in Canada is closed-down in 2016, there will be no production facility from which to purchase Tc-99m in the western hemisphere. Existing international production sources tend to be older and often unreliable, potentially delaying life-saving diagnostics.

Carmen I. Bigles, president and CEO of Coqui, commented:

We are truly honored with the faith the University of Florida Foundation and the University of Florida community as a whole has placed in Coquí Pharma by affording us the land to build this crucial facility. This is the next major step towards making the production of this crucial isotope a reality.

Click here to read the full Coqui RadioPharmaceuticals Corp. press release.