Eden Radioisotopes, LLC and Sandia National Laboratories Earn 2019 Technology Transfer Award From the Federal Laboratory Consortium, Mid-Continent Region

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., Nov. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Eden Radioisotopes, LLC, an Albuquerque, NM, startup company, and Sandia National Laboratories earned a regional Federal Laboratory Consortium (FLC) award recognizing federal laboratories and their partners for outstanding work to develop and commercialize innovative technologies.

The FLC, Mid-Continent Region recognized the Sandia–Eden partnership nomination, Small Reactor to Help Solve Worldwide Medical Isotope Shortage, for the 2019 Excellence in Technology Transfer Award. "The award letter from the FLC indicated our nomination proposal stood out in a highly competitive category. We feel fortunate to have been honored with such a prestigious award," said Bennett Lee, CEO, of Eden.

The FLC Mid-Continent Region spans over 100 federal laboratories and facilities across 14 states and is the largest of the six FLC regions. These laboratories perform cutting-edge research for agencies including the Department of Defense, Department of Energy, and Department of Agriculture.

Eden Radioisotopes has exclusively licensed technology developed by Sandia National Laboratories to build a reactor in New Mexico for the sole purpose of producing medical isotopes, primarily Molybdenum-99. Known as Moly-99 for short, this isotope is a critical, raw material for Technetium-99m, used extensively in medical molecular imaging, also known as nuclear medicine.

Medical isotopes are used in 40 million imaging procedures annually worldwide, of which 80 percent use Technetium-99m, to diagnose heart disease, cancer and other life-threatening conditions. The isotopes are injected into patients and emit gamma rays that can be tracked in the body, letting physicians create images that diagnosis disease. They also decay very quickly so patients are exposed to little radiation.

"This has been a stellar example of transferring Sandia technology," said Sandia business development specialist Bob Westervelt, who worked on licensing the concept. "The team that worked on this from Sandia was really committed to making this work, and Eden is making it possible for the technology to move forward. The technology, which uses low-enriched uranium, also meets the Department of Energy's goal to produce a reliable supply of Moly-99 without the use of high-enriched uranium."

"Using the Sandia-developed technology to build the Eden reactor is important because the world infrastructure to produce Moly-99 is 60 years old and, combined with the fact that global capacity to produce Moly-99 approximates demand for this critical isotope, supply reliability is unpredictable. Any unplanned Moly-99 supply disruption can quickly translate into shortages of Technetium-99m patient doses," said Chris Wagner, COO, Eden Radioisotopes. "As a real-time example, one major supplier of Moly-99 recently incurred an unplanned complete production outage for 9 weeks between September and November 2019, while at the same time another major supplier has been operating at 40% of normal production for several months. These unplanned Moly-99 production outages have caused significant world-wide shortages of patient doses."

"The purpose for producing these critically needed medical isotopes is deeper than solving a supply problem. Until Eden's Moly-99 production capacity comes to market, supply reliability will continue to remain an issue, potentially putting patient health at risk. We simply cannot allow this to happen," said Wagner.

About Eden Radioisotopes, LLC (Eden)

Eden is leveraging science and innovation developed by Sandia National Laboratories to build a 2MW reactor in New Mexico for the production of medical isotopes for diagnostic molecular imaging and therapeutic uses. Eden is committed to providing a reliable supply of medical isotopes such as Molybdenum-99 for healthcare patients worldwide.

Corporate Contact:

For Eden Radioisotopes, LLC
Chris Wagner, Chief Operating Officer
636-385-0148
[email protected]  

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SOURCE Eden Radioisotopes, LLC