[Updated 9/3/14, 2:22 p.m. See below.] Shine Medical Technologies, the Monona, WI-based startup racing to become the first domestic producer of medical isotopes, said today that it has raised $2.4 million from undisclosed investors.
The company, founded in 2010, has raised more than $35 million to date through equity investments, debt financing, and other sources, vice president of business development Katrina Pitas said. The latest investment round will cover operating costs as Shine attempts to secure approvals from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to begin building a planned manufacturing facility in Janesville, WI. Shine is still pursuing financing to complete that project. [This paragraph was updated to give a more precise funding total.]
Much of the money came from unidentified Wisconsin angel investors, CEO Greg Piefer said in a press release.
Shine intends to make medical isotopes using particle accelerator-based neutron generator technology developed by Phoenix Nuclear Labs. Piefer founded Phoenix in 2005, and the two companies are housed in the same facility.
Shine would make molybdenum-99, a radioisotope that decays into the diagnostic imaging agent technetium‐99m, the most commonly used medical isotope, the company said. Shine is responding to an expected shortage of medical isotopes because there are currently no domestic producers, and many overseas manufacturing facilities are aging.
Shine isn’t the only company rushing to solve this problem. NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, based in nearby Madison, WI, also plans to build a medical isotope production facility in Beloit, WI.
NorthStar broke ground on its facility in July. Shine has said it intends to begin production in Janesville in 2017.
