A Mass-Production Process of a Highly Pure Medical Use 99mTc from Natural Isotopic Mo(n, γ) 99Mo without Using Uranium

Abstract

A new method to produce highly pure 99mTc of maximum 500Ci(1.85e＋13Bq) per batch from a low specific activity 99Mo made from natural-Mo(n, γ) method is presented in this study.Authors developed a novel procedure to provide 99mTc of high specific activity and purity from 99Mo with a low specific activity obtained by the(n, γ) method. This process named TcMM(technetium master milker) with a new principle found out by the authors involves the selective adsorption of 99mTc onto an activated charcoal column, followed by an elution of 99mTc by warm alkaline solution, and final purification through an alumina column, which would be applicable to routine production of a large amounts of 99mTc from natMo(with 99Mo) within a short processing time and with a low cost.By the experiment using a high radioactivity of 99Mo of 1e＋12Bq levels, a highly pure 99mTc free from natMo(with 99Mo) was obtained in a sterile saline solution within 30 - 50min. as the chemical form of 99mTcO4−, and the average 99mTc milking rate repeated 10 times got 93.5% and the radiochemical purity of the range of 6N - 7N.In the labeling experiments using several radiopharmaceutical kits,99mTc collected from the TcMM process gave the target medicines in a highly radiochemical purity.As the result of investigating the disposition behaviors of the above-mentioned 99mTc-pharmaceuticals using small animals(mouse), 99mTc collected from TcMM gave the same result as it eluted from the conventional 99mTc generator.The findings in this study suggest that the present method using natural isotopic 98Mo(n, γ)99Mo reaction would constitute as an alternative to the Fission Method using HEU to provide 99mTc useful for clinical studies.