by
Kathy Mahdoubi, Senior Correspondent | November 06, 2009
Legislative milestone
in nuclear medicine
The "Moly" Bill, also known as the American Medical Isotopes Production Act of 2009, was put to a vote Thursday and passed the U.S. House of Representatives 400-17.
The passage of the bill opens one more door toward the domestic supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), an essential medical isotope. Now that the bill has passed the U.S. House, it will move on for review by the U.S. Senate.
"It's a small but essential move forward," said Society of Nuclear Medicine president Michael Graham, M.D. "What was particularly interesting was the wide margin in the votes. This suggests that the members of the House are aware of how important this issue is and they are in fairly broad agreement. We hope this is a portent to the next step and that the Senate will feel the same way."
H.R. 3276 was introduced by Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-MA) in July. The bill would make way for $165 million in funding as well as set guidelines for the U.S. production of Mo-99, the parent isotope of technetium-99 (Tc-99), which is required for 70 to 80 percent of nuclear medicine procedures and 16 million diagnostic imaging tests every year.
Only six reactors currently exist and are FDA-approved for the production of Mo-99 for medical use; none of them are based in the U.S. The American nuclear medicine community suffered a crisis after the closure of the Chalk River reactor in Canada due to a water leak last May and the temporary shutdown of the Petten High Flux Reactor in the Netherlands for routine maintenance.
A domestic supply of Mo-99 would ensure that millions of patient procedures are not canceled or postponed, and that potentially inferior imaging alternatives are not prescribed when Tc-99 is not available.
Provisions in the bill would discourage nuclear weapon proliferation by requiring facilities to use low-enriched uranium targets during production, instead of high-enriched targets, which are also used to produce nuclear weapons.
Dr. Graham does not foresee much obstacle to the passage of the bill in the Senate.
"There is a reasonable chance that it will pass," he said. "It shouldn't be too controversial and will most likely go through the Senate pretty rapidly."
