TRIUMF Innovations is Growing Canada’s Medical Isotope Ecosystem with $35M in New Strategic Innovation Funding
This past June, the Canadian government awarded $35 million to TRIUMF Innovations and the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization (CPDC) to support the new Canadian Medical Isotope Ecosystem (CMIE) Fund. This funding will cover a five-year period and is aimed at initiatives that focus on the production, advancement and distribution of medical isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals in Canada. This investment isn’t just another sign of Canada’s trust in TRIUMF; it’s also further validation of the leading-edge work TRIUMF has been doing in the world of medical isotopes. Medical isotopes are vital to nuclear medicine, which uses radioactive tracers to diagnose and treat diseases. These isotopes are especially effective in tracking cancer and heart diseases. These isotopes are products of nuclear reactors and particle accelerators. Responding to the currently restricted global supply of in-demand medical isotopes, the CMIE will keep Canada at the forefront of nuclear medicine. The CMIE and its $35 million will help fund new medical isotope innovations that can improve the lives of Canadians receiving medical treatments, while also helping health care workers provide patients with better care. The CMIE ecosystem will also attract more than $75 million in investments, create or maintain over 600 highly skilled jobs for Canadians, and create 30 internship opportunities. Additionally, it is expected that the CMIE will launch three high-demand medical isotopes and related drug products into the marketplace and advance two medical isotopes from early stage to pre-clinical evaluation. “TRIUMF Innovations is proud to co-lead this important initiative with the CPDC,” said TRIUMF Innovations' President and CEO Kathryn Hayashi. “The new CMIE brings together government, industry, and academia to work collaboratively to build Canadian medical isotope capabilities and ensure Canada remains a leader in this high-growth sector.” CMIE projects include technology development initiatives from partners including Bruce Power, Canadian Nuclear Labs, McMaster University, as well as a new $5M Development Fund that will launch a Call for Proposals open to Canadian researchers and SMEs in 2023. The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, was equally excited about working with TRIUMF. “Our government is proud to partner with CPDC and TRIUMF Innovations as part of our Biomanufacturing and Life Sciences Strategy to create the Canadian Medical Isotope Ecosystem,” stated Champagne. “With this investment, we are making our country a major player in the global biomanufacturing and life sciences industry while creating good jobs for Canadians and stimulating the local economy." For more than 70 years now, Canada has played a key leadership role in the development and use of medical isotopes and has become a global leader in their production and supply. Since March 2020 alone, more than $2 billion has been invested in this emerging and critical field, resulting in 36 major new and expanded projects, all of which have elevated the capacities of Canada’s biomanufacturing and life sciences sectors. This is partly what led to the founding of TRIUMF Innovations in 2008. As the business interface and commercialization arm of TRIUMF, TRIUMF Innovations connects Canada's particle accelerator centre(TRIUMF) to the private sector via industry partnerships, licensing, and company creation. And, CMIE Co-Lead, the CPDC, has as its mission a very similar goal: to advance the “probes”—the chemical agents that carry medical isotopes to targets in the body—and hasten the discovery, development, and clinical research of other radiopharmaceuticals, and to provide a reliable supply of medicinal radiocompounds to Canada’s health care industry.
CMIE didn’t just emerge out of nowhere. Its creation, in many ways, came about because of work TRIUMF and TRIUMF Innovations has been focused on since 2018. It was in November of that year that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the start of construction on the Institute for Advanced Medical Isotopes (IAMI). Enabled by the government of Canada, the province of British Columbia, and contributing research partners, including BC Cancer and the University of British Columbia, IAMI became operational in 2022 on the TRIUMF business campus. Dedicated to the research and production of medical isotopes, this state-of-the-art facility features an integrated series of labs and a TR-24 medical cyclotron, one of the most technologically advanced commercial cyclotrons in the world. It also produces a wide variety of medical isotopes critical for Canadian health research and clinical use. Further, IAIMI will continue to produce world-leading amounts of Ac-225-another promising cancer-fighting isotope. Already recognized internationally for over fifty years as a global leader, Canada’s research and production infrastructure, along with deep expertise in isotope technologies, place us at a critical juncture to expand our role with the global demand for isotopes doubling by 2030. The CMIE will help position Canada as a leader of the ever-growing global market for medical isotopes, which is expected to reach up to US$31 billion by 2031. “Each year, medical isotopes are used in more than 40 million procedures globally and demand is increasing worldwide,” stated TRIUMF Innovations CEO Hayashi. “With TRIUMF Innovations’ focus on commercialization, we are pleased with this new level of support for medical isotopes commercialization from Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, and the Canadian government.” Or, as observed by Pam Damoff, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Public Safety and Member of Parliament for Oakville North—Burlington, Ontario, this latest $35 million investment and the creation of the CMIE signals yet another “major step toward building resiliency in our domestic medical production capabilities, which will help to ensure the health and safety of Canadians in the event of any potential future global supply chain disruptions.”
TRIUMF leads the way in radioisotope diagnostics and therapy
TRIUMF has been producing medical isotopes for more than 40 years, and over the past decade its Life Sciences Division has extensively expanded its radioisotope program—now producing isotopes for use in everything from Positron Emission Tomography and Single-Photon Emission Computerized Tomography (SPECT) scans to therapeutic isotopes.
Radioisotopes are an essential part of medical diagnostic procedures. In combination with imaging devices that register the gamma rays emitted from within, radioisotopes often serve as the basic ingredient of radiopharmaceutical products, which are used to detect (diagnose) or combat cardiovascular diseases and cancer cells (therapy), among many other conditions.
The TRIUMF cyclotron complex produces fluorine-18, carbon-11, actinium-225, strontium-82, germanium-68, and I-123.
TRIUMF has a smaller cyclotron, with an energy of 13 MeV (Million Electron Volts), and a larger cyclotron, with 24 MeV, which produce radioisotopes for use in PET and SPECT scans, respectively. And TRIUMF’s larger 520 MeV cyclotron has proven invaluable for targeted alpha therapy, which enables alpha-particle-emitting radioisotopes to selectively target tumor cells—even those that have spread throughout the body.
Technetium-99m is by far the most widely utilized isotope in nuclear medicine, helping to measure everything from bone density and blood flow to cardiac function and functional brain imaging. It’s used in tens of millions of diagnostic scans every year around the world, and TRIUMF licensed its Tc-99m technology (developed in response to the global shortage triggered in 2008 from the closing of the Chalk River nuclear reactor) to a successful spinoff company, ARTMS Inc.
TRIUMF continues to lead the way in the research and development of new medical isotope technologies that will enable future image-guided and personalized cancer treatments.
Radioisotopes: what they are, how they work, how they benefit patients
Medical isotopes, also known as radioisotopes, are used in more than 10,000 hospitals worldwide. Close to 90% of the procedures using these isotopes are for diagnosis. In Canada, about 1.5 million nuclear diagnostic scans are performed each year, while the U.S. accounts for about 20 million annually.
Radioisotopes are a type of chemical element that are produced through the natural decay of atoms, and every chemical element has one or more radioactive isotopes. They have the same chemical properties as stable isotopes of the same element, but they emit radiation, which can be detected. The best-known naturally occurring radioisotope is uranium. There are more than 1,000 radioactive isotopes of the various elements, about 50 of which are found in nature. The other 900-plus are produced artificially.
Radioisotopes have become an essential part of medical diagnostic procedures, especially in nuclear medicine, where radioactive tracers (radiopharmaceuticals) help assess bodily functions and diagnose and treat disease usually in combination with imaging devices, such as PET/CT (Positron Emission Tomography with Computerized Tomography). Medical technicians track these radioisotopes in the body by the gamma emissions they give off and they provide useful data on tissue or organ function to make a diagnosis.
TRIUMF has been producing medical isotopes for over 40 years now and has expanded its isotope production program to therapeutic isotopes. This new generation of radio isotopes used to precisely image and treat disease, is opening a completely new era in personalized medicine: the right medicine for the right patient at an accelerated timescale.
Medical Isotopes at TRIUMF
From TRIUMF’s earliest years as a pioneering new cyclotron facility to its modern role as Canada’s particle accelerator centre, its unique capabilities have supported medical isotope development. TRIUMF Innovations’ leadership in the Canadian Medical Isotope Ecosystem initiative is the newest piece of this exciting history- read on for a look at how it all happened!
Click (here) to go to the TRIUMF Timeline
