SHINE Medical Technologies raises $94.6 million

The parent company of medical isotope manufacturer SHINE Medical Technologies raised $94.6 million, according to a recent filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Illuminated Holdings Inc., the parent company of Shine, also raised $131.7 million in an April round of funding. SHINE did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, in a recent interview with BizTimes Milwaukee, SHINE founder CEO Greg Piefer said the $131.7 million would be used to support its molybydenum-99 (Mo-99) and therapeutics business. The Janesville-based company just completed construction of its 46,000 square-foot manufacturing facility in Janesville to produce Mo-99, an isotope that decays into an imaging agent used in 40,000 diagnostic medical procedures in the U.S. each day. In addition to Mo-99 production, SHINE is focused on manufacturing lutetium-177 (Lu-177), a therapeutic isotope that is combined with a disease-specific targeting molecule to treat cancer. “This is a big piece of capital and material in terms of giving us the money we needed to stay on track with the isotope facility and our therapeutics business, which is ramping nicely,” Piefer said of the $131.7 million fundraise. SHINE's new facility will be up and running by the end of next year, Piefer said, adding that commercial production of Mo-99 will follow in 2023. The company also has plans to construct a Mo-99 production facility in the Netherlands. Between both facilities, SHINE will have the capacity to produce double the European patient need for Mo-99, and 70% of the global patient need for this particular medical isotope by 2025, the company has said. The fundraise follows a merger between the nuclear technology company and Fitchburg-based Phoenix LLC, which became a wholly-owned subsidiary of SHINE. The latest equity round of funding was raised by 44 investors and had a total offering amount of $150 million, according to the SEC filing. SHINE is one of two Wisconsin-based companies and one of three companies in the country on pace to become a critical piece of the medical isotope supply chain in the U.S.