Shine Medical Technologies said this week that it closed a $50 million financing round from Oaktree Capital Management for the construction of a medical isotope production facility and commercialization of its products.
The Janesville, Wis.-based company expects construction on the plant to be completed in 2021, with commercial-scale isotope production slated to begin the following year. Shine said its facility will be capable of supplying more than one-third of the global demand for molybdenum-99 isotopes.
In 2016 the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission cleared the company to build the facility. It was the first such clearance since 1960, according to the company.
Along with Mo-99, Shine said it plans to use the funds to commercialize lutetium-177, a therapeutic isotope used to treat neuroendocrine cancers. The company has an agreement with the Czech Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Organic Chemistry & Biochemistry that provides Shine with a global exclusive license to a separation technology that the company will use to produce non-carrier-added Lu-177, which it said should provide the highest therapeutic efficacy.
Shine will add the $50 million to the $18 million it added in June. The company also raised $27.2 million in January 2017 and another $29.3 million in April 2017.
“We are excited to welcome Oaktree to Shine’s growing list of top-tier institutional investors,” Shine founder & CEO Greg Piefer said in prepared remarks. “Oaktree has broad expertise in complex infrastructure projects like our medical isotope facility. It joins Deerfield Management, a leading health care investment firm, as one of our key partners. Oaktree and Deerfield will help us deliver on Shine’s value proposition, including the completion of our isotope production facility and the development of our therapeutics business. Their participation validates the strength of our business case, team and vision for bringing our lifesaving products to market.”
“Shine is an outstanding company with a strong management team, exceptional technology and compelling story,” added Oaktree managing director Milwood Hobbs Jr. “The need for Shine’s medical isotope production facility is profound, as millions of patients are affected each year by the ongoing shortage of Mo-99. Oaktree is confident Shine will play a major role in ending that shortage and we are pleased to support Shine’s production facility construction.”
“Oaktree is pleased to be a partner with Shine as it executes a growth strategy that includes commercializing therapeutic isotopes and constructing a production facility in Europe,” said Oaktree SVP Aman Kumar. “The global market for therapeutic isotopes, including Lu-177, continues to grow rapidly and Shine is well positioned to capture significant value in that market. We are equally as excited by Shine’s commitment to Europe, where the current isotope producers are expected to stop production during the next several years.”
