The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has agreed to provide supplemental funding for NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes’ medical isotope production venture.

The Saskatoon, Canada-based Canadian Light Source has reached a major benchmark in the company’s Medical Isotope Project by shipping the first major supply of isotopes, the company announced Friday. Health Canada has yet to approve it, but, with further testing, this technology could begin supplying medical isotopes to medical facilities in the region by 2016.

F-18 mefway is a novel serotonin-1A receptor ligand that could one day be used to image neurodegenerative disease and psychiatric disorders, according to a story published Nov. 13 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Lantheus Medical Imaging, based in Billerica, Mass., announced the radiopharmaceutical company’s third quarter financials yesterday, revealing an 8 percent increase over the same quarter in 2013.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued final rules for the 2015 Hospital Outpatient Prospective Payment System (HOPPS) and the Medicare Physician Fee Schedule (MPFS). The rules were recorded in the Federal Register Nov. 10 and go into effect Jan. 1, 2015. It appears that changes to HOPPS will depress PET payments by 1.9 percent.

Yet another blood test for Alzheimer's disease is being developed--this time by a group of Japanese researchers. The technique could, if approved, be used to screen patients who show no signs of neurodegeneration. 

More than half of surveyed referring physicians said that F-18 FDG PET/CT scans were being clinically misinterpreted in somewhere between 5 percent and 20 percent of cases, according to a study published Nov. 7 in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

The Cambridge, Mass.-based pharmaceutical development company NeuroPhage, which specializes in novel drugs for neurodegenerative disease announced last week that Franz Hefti, PhD, would take the lead as president and chief operating officer.