Radionuclides find widespread use in in medical technologies for treating and diagnosing disease. Among the list of impactful radiotherapeutics,119Sb stands out as having potential in targeted therapeutic applications of low energy electron emitting radionuclides. Developing 119Sb based drugs has unfortunately been slow in comparison to other radionuclides, primarily because of limited access to this isotope. We contribute herein a production method that expands the available time for large-scale distribution and use. Our approach exploits production and isolation of longer-lived 119mTe (4.7 d). This parent isotope slowly decays to 119Sb, which in turn provides access to 119Sb for a longer time period, in comparison to direct 119Sb production routes. This presentation will describe target design, irradiation conditions, and the rapid radiochemical separation procedure for the 119mTe/119Sb pair. To guide process development and to understand why the separation was so successful, we also characterized the process using Te and Sb K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS). Ultimately the procedure provides a low volume aqueous solution that has high 119mTe (and consequently 119Sb) specific activity in a chemically pure form. Currently, this procedure has been demonstrated at a large (production-size) scale and its product has high potential to meet stringent requirements of the FDA for a 119mTe/119Sb active pharmaceutical ingredient.

119mTe production for 119Sb radiopharmaceuticals

2019 Spring National Meeting

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