European Union’s efforts to sustain the supply of 99Mo

The Molybdenum-99/Technetium-99m (99Mo/99mTc) supply disruptions occurred in the recent years prompted the European Commission and industry to establish in 2012 a European Observatory on the Supply of Medical Radioisotopes, aimed at bringing together all relevant information to the decision makers in the European Union (EU) institutions and national governments in order to assist them in defining strategies as well as policies for their implementation. The Observatory follows the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development/Nuclear Energy Agency—OECD/NEA principles established by the High Level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR), of which the European Commission is a Member, and focuses on the specificities of their implementation in the EU, recognizing at the same time that the supply is of a global nature and requires broader international cooperation. The Observatory has four general strategic objectives: to support a secure 99Mo/99mTc supply across the European Union, ensure that the issue of 99Mo/99mTc supply is given high political visibility, encourage the creation of a sustainable economic structure of the supply chain and establish periodic reviews of the supply capacities and demand.