The Canadian government has rejected a plan by a medical isotope supplier, mainly for bureaucratic reasons, to offset a severe shortage by importing the material from Israel – setting off a firestorm of protest from the nation's health professionals.  The isotopes are needed for cancer patients as well as others.

Canada has faced a crisis for more than a year following the May 2009 shutdown of its Chalk River nuclear reactor in Ontario. About two-thirds of the world's supply of medical isotopes are produced at Chalk River. The shortage was further exacerbated by the shutdown of a reactor in the Netherlands this spring. Other reactors have closed off and on as well.

The shortage in the supply of medical isotopes has severely curtailed the number of patients able to be evaluated on any given day, warn doctors.

Dr. Chris O'Brien, president of the Ontario Association of Nuclear Medicine, said the supply of Technetium-99 (Tc-99) in his province last week stood at 15 percent of normal levels. Dr. Lamoureux reported that in Quebec, only 5 to 10 percent of the regular supply of Tc-99 was available.

Government: 'Red Tape, Not Politics'

But Health Canada, the country's federal health department, claims the issue may be one of red tape, not politics. According to government spokesman Gary Holub, Israel is not an approved provider – and it is this point that is causing the problem, rather than the identity of the supplier.

Holub told the Toronto Sun in an email response that “although the source of the isotope from South Africa is known to Health Canada, the final product manufactured in Israel has never been evaluated for its safety, effectiveness or quality.”

There is a way to solve the problem, Holub added, although it might not be simple. “The only way to obtain isotopes from Israel in Canada is through the Special Access Programme,” which provides fast-track access to certain medications on an emergency basis.

Lantheus, one of the approved suppliers of isotopes in Canada, would have imported surplus isotope “generators” from Israel that were processed using isotopes purchased from South Africa. The Canadian importer also would have provided the quality assurance for the product.

A generator is the device used to obtain Technetium-99 (Tc-99) – a key isotope used in medical imaging -- from molybdenum-99, another radioactive isotope used in nuclear medical diagnostics.

Although Holub said the proposal by Lantheus, one of the suppliers of isotopes in Canada, had not been approved, he did not say it had been rejected.

Dr. Francois Lamoureux, president of the Quebec Association of Nuclear Medicine Specialist told the newspaper that since Canada has already approved the South African isotopes themselves, “the minister must intervene. We must try to protect patients in Canada. Israel is a friendly country, developed scientifically.”