NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes Breaks Ground for New Facility in Beloit, Wis.

BELOIT, Wis. – July 22, 2014 – NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC broke ground today for a new 50,000-square-foot facility at 1800 Gateway Blvd. in Beloit, Wis. When completed in late 2014, the facility will house the company’s headquarters and activities related to the production of the medical radioisotope molybdenum-99 (Mo-99).

NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes Breaks Ground for New Facility in Beloit, Wis. from Steve Tesmer on Vimeo.

Mo-99 is the parent isotope of technetium-99m (Tc-99m), the most widely used radioisotope in medical diagnostic imaging. Currently, nearly all Mo-99 is generated using highly enriched uranium (HEU) at aging facilities located outside of the United States, leading to product shortages and creating safety and national security concerns. NorthStar is pursuing two non-uranium- and non-fission-based production processes that would help establish the first domestic source of Mo-99 since 1990. Both processes generate only a benign waste stream.

The new facility is phase one in the planned development of a 32-acre corporate campus for NorthStar. It will support the company’s work at the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) in Columbia, Mo., where NorthStar is developing a neutron capture process to generate Mo-99.

The facility will provide ancillary processes, packaging and products, including final assembly and testing of the proprietary RadioGenix™ intelligent isotope separation system. NorthStar will also move its company headquarters, currently located in Madison, Wis., to the facility.

“Today’s groundbreaking is an exciting milestone for NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes and an important step toward achieving the goal of establishing a reliable and commercially viable domestic source of Mo-99,” said NorthStar President and Chief Executive Officer George P. Messina.

Diane M. Hendricks, owner and chairman of Hendricks Holding Co., a major investor in NorthStar, said, “Hendricks Holding Co. is excited to be part of such an innovative group. Not only will NorthStar create jobs and economic development in Beloit and the surrounding area, it is developing exciting new technologies and processes that will help improve patient care, advance important medical research and alleviate safety and national security concerns.”

Phase two of the campus development project would see the building expanded; the site could accommodate a building as large as 110,000 square feet. Phase three would include construction of a linear accelerator facility for use in the second Mo-99-generation process that NorthStar is developing. A third building also could be constructed on the site in the future as the company continues to expand.

The facility is being constructed by Corporate Contractors Inc. of Beloit. Architecture firm Angus Young Associates Inc. of Janesville, Wis. designed the facility.

NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC
Based in Madison, Wis., NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes LLC (northstarnm.com) was founded in 2006 to address the needs of the nuclear medicine market in the United States. A wholly owned subsidiary of NorthStar Medical Technologies LLC, the company is committed to resolving industry-wide supply challenges that have caused shortages of vital medical isotopes, negatively impacting patient care and stalling clinical research. Its patented technologies include innovative non-uranium-based molybdenum-99 production methods, a novel separation chemistry system and tools for the nuclear medicine market.