The use of copper-67 radioisotope has been severely limited up to this point because it has traditionally been difficult to obtain, was often not very pure, and also very expensive. Iotron are working with parners to commercialize a new production method based on enriched zinc-68 targets and a compact electron beam accelerator.
A patented sublimation process separates the copper-67 from the target which also facilitates rapid and efficient enriched target material recycling. The resulting copper-67 has high specific activity and low chemical and radiochemical impurity levels. The four granted US patents are provided below (Europe and Japan patents also granted):