Wisconsin-based Shine Medical Technologies, a nuclear technology company focused on becoming a leading producer of medical isotopes, announced that its therapeutics division has made its first commercial sales of lutetium-177 to multiple customers.

Lu-177 is a therapeutic isotope in demand by clinical trial sponsors because of its potential to treat a range of cancers. It can be produced in nuclear reactors, but Shine uses technology that replaces the reactor with a low-energy, accelerator-based neutron source. This source functions by colliding deuterium ions with tritium gas to cause fusion.

Shine is building a first-of-a-kind medical isotope production facility in Janesville, Wisconsin. The company announced in September that it had closed $80m in financing for the facility.