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AlphaMed's primary focus is to produce radioisotopes that have shown promise in cancer therapies and treatment of other diseases. It has received competitive contracts from the Department of Energy that support the development and delivery of alpha-emitting radionuclides. The company has been awarded a grant from the Department of Energy to privatize the production of radioisotope generators critical to research being conducted by the National Cancer Institute, the University of Chicago, and private radiopharmaceutical companies. AlphaMed and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory have agreed to collaborate to design, test and evaluate new and existing technologies for processing uranium-232 and producing radium-224/lead-212/bismuth-212 radionuclide generators. Lead-212 and bismuth-212 are alpha emitting radioisotopes that are used for research in radioimmunotherapy with important applications that include treating leukemia and metastatic cancers. AlphaMed has received grants from the DOE to develop its photonuclear technology in the production of actinium-225/bismuth-213. The photonuclear reaction initiates a decay chain leading to the production of a number of scarce isotopes that have shown promise in cancer therapy. In addition to Ac-225/Bi-213, development plans anticipate the production of copper-67, indium-111, and iodine-123 using this technology. AlphaMed is also developing its photonuclear route and other routes to obtain high quality yttrium-90, scandium-47 and lutetium-177. The DOE's Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention program awarded AlphaMed with competitive grants which support the development of the photonuclear technology and other routes that will enable the company to offer Ac-225 within the next six months. AlphaMed has been awarded grants from the DOE's IPP program to obtain starting material required for its photonuclear production of Ac-225/Bi-213. Under this arrangement, Russian weapon scientists will fabricate and ship targets to AlphaMed for irradiation and processing. Spent material will be returned to Russia for reprocessing into additional targets. This production process holds the appeal of making large amounts of Ac-225 available that cannot be obtained through any other method. Obtaining Ac-225 through the photonuclear reaction is a longer-term project that has the potential of producing substantial quantities of the isotope that are required to support a large number of clinical trials and approved drug products. To provide larger amounts of Ac-225 in the short term, AlphaMed has received another grant under this program for the production of Ac-225/Bi-213 through processing Russian stocks of uranium-233. Ac-225 produced by this method will be available for shipment in early 2003.
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AlphaMed
is a small business headquartered in Massachusetts.
An exclusive patent license from MIT enables AlphaMed to develop
and market isotopes using photonuclear technology. Agreements are
in place with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute for irradiation services
and with the Pacific Northwest National Lab to process AlphaMed's
isotopes and prepare them for shipment. The company has relationships
with Argonne National Laboratory and is developing relationships
with selected Russian laboratories under the Initiatives for Proliferation
Prevention program. AlphaMed is a member of the 
