And now we don't even get first dibs on the isotopes.

[HeresyLives]

Precious medical isotopes could be shipped overseas

Gloria Galloway and Shawn McCarthy
Ottawa — From Monday's Globe and Mail Published on Sunday, Mar. 07, 2010 8:35PM EST


Scarce medical isotopes produced by a Canadian reactor could be heading overseas when the aging Chalk River facility returns to service, after a year of repairs that cost taxpayers an estimated $70-million.

The NRU reactor in Chalk River is scheduled to return to service in late April. Before the reactor was shut down last May, MDS Nordion, the Ottawa-based company that processes the isotopes produced by the NRU, had been selling them to a U.S. firm that then distributed them throughout Canada and the United States.

However, in a communication to customers last spring, Lantheus Medical Imaging, said the price that Nordion is demanding is too high and that Lantheus was unwilling to sign a new contract to distribute the isotopes, which are used in a wide range of medical procedures including cancer diagnoses and heart treatment.

Neither Lantheus nor Nordion will discuss the state of their negotiations as the reactor's restart looms. But a Lantheus official said it would be “speculative” to say that Lantheus will distribute any of the isotopes from the NRU when the reactor has been turned back on.
Nordion is open to finding new customers who may not share Lantheus' interest in supplying Canada.
There is nothing in the agreement that Nordion signed with Atomic Energy of Canada (AECL), the Crown corporation that owns the Chalk River reactor, to stipulate that any of the material must be reserved for Canadian patients.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/precious-medical-isotopes-could-be-shipped-overseas/article1492961/