The tri-County region of Bruce, Grey and Huron, also known as Ontario’s Clean Energy Frontier, has long been the hub for the province’s supply of safe and reliable nuclear energy.
Building on decades of energy production and a spirit of innovation, the area is also becoming renowned for its production of cancer-fighting medical isotopes.
For more than 30 years, Bruce Power has produced cobalt-60, used to sterilize 40 per cent of the world’s single-use medical devices. Over the past two years, Bruce Power has also produced lutetium-177, a targeted therapy for a range of cancers, including prostate cancer and neuroendocrine tumours. Lutetium-177 is produced using a first-of-its-kind Isotope Production System, with a second line added into production in late-October to effectively double the amount of the medical isotope that Bruce Power supplies to the world market.
Ontario has long been at the forefront of medical isotope production and innovation and the provincial government has formally recognized it in its Phase 2 of its Taking Life Sciences to the Next Level, released Oct. 15.
Part of the strategy, entitled Focusing on Ontario’s Nuclear Advantage, states that “with critical investments by our government in partnership with leading Ontario universities and companies, we will continue to support reliable access to cutting-edge treatments for cancer patients and expand Ontario’s nuclear medicine advantage.”
Bruce Power welcomes this news as it had been advocating for this formal recognition, along with the Southwestern Ontario Isotope Coalition and Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council, of which the company is founding members. And it came just before Bruce Power was able to double its production of lutetium-177 and celebrate the two-year anniversary of commercial production of lutetium-177 along with its partners Isogen and the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON).
The Southwestern Ontario Isotope Coalition is a network of more than 20 collaborative regional partners that aims to leverage strengths to attract public and private investment to expand the region’s position within the global isotope ecosystem.
By moving the needle on important areas such as infrastructure, logistics, market adoption, economic opportunities, and labour and training, Bruce Power and its partners are helping grow from strong roots in the burgeoning field of medical isotopes, to the benefit of patients around the world.
The Canadian Nuclear Isotope Council has an ambitious vision of doubling Canada’s production of isotopes by 2030, which will allow Canada to meet the needs of the growing international market and says that Canada is well poised to build on its progress, capabilities, and expertise to become a global leader. Our region will play a huge role in this growth.
