Covidien advises customers about impending molybdenum shortage

August 29, 2008 Covidien advises customers about impending molybdenum shortage James Brice -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Covidien has alerted customers for its technetium-99m generators about impending shortages caused by the unexpected shutdown of the Dutch nuclear reactor that serves as its main source of molybdenum-99. General manager Rick Lytle announced the following changes Aug. 27 to the production schedule for its Ultra-Technekow DTE Tc-99m generator: Aug. 31: All standing orders will be filled, but an expected 25% shortfall of MO-99 supply will force the company to reduce generator sizes for all shipments. Sept. 1: No shipments will be made on Labor Day. Sept. 3: Orders will be filled, but their capacities will be cut to reflect a 50% cut in normal MO-99 availability. Sept. 5: No generator orders will be filled. Covidien depends mainly on the High Flux reactor at Petten in the Netherlands for the production of MO-99 isotope, the precursor isotope to Tc-99m, which is produced as MO-99 decays. The isotope supply chain is susceptible to shortages because of the 66-hour half-life of MO-99.

See full article and related articles at DiagnosticImaging.com
This article was republished with permission from CMPMedica, LLC