SHINE Medical Technologies Inc., a Janesville-based company dedicated to being the world leader in the safe, clean, affordable production of medical isotopes, and Deerfield Management Company, a healthcare investment firm, announced today the closing of a definitive agreement providing a $150 million financing commitment to support diagnostic and therapeutic medical isotope manufacturing. The Company’s first product, molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), will address current chronic shortages of the isotope, which is currently relied on for 80% of all nuclear medicine procedures.
“We are enthusiastic about partnering with SHINE to help create a permanent and dependable solution to the industry’s Mo-99 shortage and to work on developing other medical isotopes for therapeutic use,” said Steve Hochberg, Partner at Deerfield. “We look forward to continuing to work with the talented SHINE team and supporting them as the company scales and executes to address this important need.”
Deerfield’s investment will be used for the construction of SHINE’s main production facility, which will start in the spring of 2019. The investment is tranched, based on SHINE achieving milestones. At full capacity, the SHINE facility will be able to supply over one third of global demand for Mo-99. The investment will also provide capital to ramp up operations prior to commencing commercial production of Mo-99, expected to begin in 2021.
“We are excited to sign this deal as we begin construction of our Janesville production facility,” said Greg Piefer, SHINE founder and CEO. “Deerfield is a world-leading healthcare investment firm and is a strong partner that provides important institutional validation of our business.”
Prior to signing the Deerfield agreement, SHINE also closed its Series B funding round, bringing in over $30M of investment through private investors. “The Series B round was largely driven by the support of in-state investors and strategic partners. We are extremely grateful to know that the State of Wisconsin and our industry partners believe in the SHINE vision and opportunity,” said Todd Asmuth, President and CFO of SHINE.
