Curium has signed a long-term partnership with the Institut Laue–Langevin (ILL) for irradiation services at their high-flux nuclear reactor in Grenoble, France to produce non-carrier added lutetium-177 (Lu-177). Curium said this will add additional security of supply while bringing a high-flux reactor within the Curium irradiation reactor landscape. The agreement follows Curium’s announcement in May to extend its irradiation partnership with NRG I PALLAS in the Netherlands. Curium’s Lu-177 programme will benefit more than 100,000 critically ill patients worldwide over the next five years.
“With the growing demand for Lu-177 around the world, we are extremely pleased to be adding the ILL reactor to our reactor supplier base,” said Ciril Faia, Curium CEO SPECT Europe. This is significant “not only because of the capabilities of the ILL to produce high quantities of Lu-177 given its high-flux, but also because it adds complementary reactor uptime to Curium’s global irradiation portfolio – ultimately for the benefit of cancer patients”. This part of Curiumn’s short-term plan to build “the most robust Lu-177 supply chain in the world, via ongoing dialogues with several other reactors elsewhere in the world – leveraging our current position as key customer for reactors via Curium’s product portfolio”.
