What Happens When Your Isotope Supplier Gets Bought by Your Competitor?

A 32-day timeline

On 20 August, Akiram Therapeutics announced that ITM would supply the lutetium-177 for its clinical trial of AKIR001.

On 21 September, 32 days later, ITM agreed to be acquired by Telix Pharmaceuticals, for US$1.65 billion upfront plus up to US$700 million in milestones.

Telix sells and develops its own radiopharmaceuticals. And Akiram is one customer of many. In the deal announcement, ITM is described as a key supplier for both commercially available and future therapeutic radiopharmaceuticals, with 2025 revenue of US$273 million and a distribution network spanning more than 65 countries.

To be clear, nothing we've seen suggests anything has changed for Akiram. But the timeline does raise a question that every radiopharma developer should be asking right now....

What happens when the company that supplies your isotope is bought by a company that competes with you?

Was that just bad timing?

Partly, maybe. But it isn't the only example. Look at the four big supply deals agreed this autumn:

Three out of four are going to companies that ALSO sell drugs. Only BWXT Medical is going to an owner that doesn't (and BWXT would keep a minority stake). None of the four had closed as of 26 October.

Taken together, the headline values add up to as much as US$12.1 billion. That includes contingent payments, and more than just the supply businesses themselves, so treat it as a ceiling rather than money already paid.

What did the buyers actually say about outside customers?

This is where it gets interesting.

We read all four announcements, looking for one thing: what each buyer said about the supply business's existing outside customers.

• GE HealthCare / SOFIE: explicit. SOFIE "will continue to operate as an independent manufacturing partner to its customers," supplying its existing portfolio, including products from other radiopharma companies.
• Telix / ITM: no explicit commitment. The announcement describes ITM as a key supplier and talks about deepening Telix's supply chain for the isotopes its own pipeline needs. It doesn't spell out what changes (if anything) for ITM's other customers.
• Curium / Lantheus: no explicit commitment. The announcement says the combined company will span "the full nuclear medicine value chain," and that Lantheus operates independently until closing. Evergreen's contract manufacturing business isn't mentioned.
• Nordic Capital / BWXT Medical: no explicit commitment. BWXT says it will keep a stake and continue providing isotope and radiochemical expertise.

To be fair, a deal announcement is written for shareholders, not for customers. These questions may well be answered privately, or before closing.

But if your clinical trial depends on that supply, "it'll probably be fine" isn't a great answer to give your board....

"Has every reason to" and "has committed to" are two different things.

Why ownership matters more in radiopharma than almost anywhere else

A supplier changing hands can disrupt any drug programme. In radiopharma, a few things make it harder:

• The product decays. Radioactive decay limits how much inventory you can hold as a buffer. Supply has to keep flowing, on schedule.
• Capacity is still tight in places. When a production run is short, someone decides whose doses ship first.
• Switching takes time. Depending on the product and the change, a new isotope source or manufacturer can mean new testing, comparability work and regulatory filings before it can supply patients.

None of this means a new owner will treat outside customers badly. A supplier with dozens of customers has every commercial reason to keep them (ITM's US$273 million of 2025 revenue didn't come from Telix alone). And GE has gone out of its way to say SOFIE stays an independent partner to its customers.

But "has every reason to" and "has committed to" are two different things. And boards, investors and regulators tend to care about the second one.

The questions a developer's board should be asking

If you're a radiopharma developer, here's what I'd want answered for every critical supplier:

• Who owns them today, and who will own them in six months? Several of these deals haven't closed yet.
• Does the owner have a drug that competes with mine, for the same target, the same isotope or the same patients?
• What does my contract say about allocation if capacity gets tight? Is there a priority clause, or is it at the supplier's discretion?
• What happens on a change of control? Can I exit, and how long would it actually take to move?
• Who at the supplier can see my data? Batch records, forecasts and regulatory documents all say a lot about a programme.
• Do I have a qualified second source, or at least a plan for one?

That fourth question is the one most people underestimate. When we reviewed 26 publicly filed manufacturing agreements for our report The Right to Leave, only two stated a numeric deadline for completing a transfer out. Both said four months, and even that didn't guarantee when another site could actually supply the product.

Who's still independent?

If ownership is about to become a selling point, the obvious next question is: who's left?

ProGen's map tracks 269 radiopharma developers and sponsors. It also tracks 203 organisations in isotope production and 91 in CDMO and manufacturing. (These are counts of what we track, and plenty of those organisations aren't commercial-scale, so the realistic choice for any one programme is a lot narrower.)

Other supply businesses have been busy this autumn:

• NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes secured a growth capital facility of up to US$185 million from Hercules Capital on 29 September, to scale actinium-225 production and its CDMO business in Beloit, Wisconsin. NorthStar says it has supply and manufacturing agreements with more than 30 pharma and biotech customers. (For where actinium supply is heading, see Peak Actinium.)
• Nusano signed a supply agreement with Taiwan's Primo Biotechnology on 14 October, covering five isotopes: lutetium-177, actinium-225, indium-111, zirconium-89 and terbium-161.

And some developers were already spreading their bets before any of this. Between December 2024 and January 2025, Ariceum Therapeutics announced separate supply agreements with Eckert & Ziegler, NorthStar and ITM for the isotopes behind its satoreotide programme.

Adding a supplier is real work

It's easy to say "just add a second supplier." It's a lot harder to do.

Here's one public example. On 14 August, Actinium Pharmaceuticals said it had amended its Investigational New Drug application (IND) "to add an additional manufacturer" for Actimab-A, to "expand capacity and supply flexibility." That's a regulatory filing, not just a new contract. Behind it sits testing, documentation and coordination across both manufacturers.

The work usually lands on a small group of people: supply chain, CMC and manufacturing leaders who have actually qualified a second source for a radiopharmaceutical before. There aren't many of them, and most of them are already busy.

If I was running a developer today, I'd want to know who would lead that work before I needed it, not after a supplier changes hands.

Where do I think this goes next?

Over the next six months, I think a supplier being able to say "we don't make drugs" becomes a BIG selling point.

• Developers start adding second suppliers, and investors start asking "who owns your supplier?" in due diligence, if they aren't already.
• The independents that are left get more expensive, and a lot more interesting to investors. Isotope producers and manufacturers with no drugs of their own are about to have a story to sell that they didn't have a year ago.
• Suppliers that now sit inside drug companies will need to put something in writing for their outside customers, the way GE did. Otherwise those customers will go looking elsewhere.

I could be wrong on the timing. Integrations take a while, and most customers won't move until something actually goes wrong.

But I don't think I'm wrong on the direction. We first made the broader case in The Grid Is the IP back in February: in radiopharma, the supply network, not the molecule, is increasingly where the leverage sits. This autumn's deals are that idea playing out.

So, has your board asked yet?

If you're a developer, it's worth putting the question on the next board agenda: who owns our supplier, and what's our plan if that changes?

If you're an investor, it's worth adding to diligence.

And if you're an independent supplier... this might be the best commercial argument you've had in years.

If you're working through any of this, whether that's hiring the person who'll lead a second-source programme or mapping which suppliers are genuinely independent, we're always happy to compare notes.

And if you'd like this kind of read on the market every week, ProGen Radar is where we publish it.

Frequently asked questions

About this intelligence

Facts in this article come from public company announcements and regulatory filings, linked below, plus ProGen's own tracking of the radiopharma ecosystem. Counts from ProGen's map are counts of what we track, not the whole market. Predictions are labelled as ProGen's reading. Facts are current as of 26 October 2026. Other sources are proprietary ProGen intelligence sources.

Sources

Primary sources, accessed October 2026.

1. Akiram Therapeutics, "Akiram Therapeutics and ITM sign Lutetium-177 supply agreement to support development of AKIR001", August 20, 2026.
2. Telix Pharmaceuticals, "Telix and ITM join forces to create a radiopharmaceutical powerhouse", September 21, 2026.
3. SOFIE / GE HealthCare, "GE HealthCare to acquire SOFIE Biosciences", October 5, 2026.
4. Curium, "Curium to merge with Lantheus", August 3, 2026.
5. Curium, "FDA approval of BEXLUTRY", September 14, 2026.
6. Lantheus, "Lantheus completes acquisition of Evergreen Theragnostics", April 1, 2025.
7. BWXT, "BWXT selling medical business to Nordic Capital in transaction valued at up to $800 million", August 3, 2026.
8. NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, "NorthStar secures growth financing", September 29, 2026.
9. Nusano, "Nusano and Primo Biotechnology multi-isotope supply agreement", October 14, 2026.
10. Eckert & Ziegler, "Eckert & Ziegler and Ariceum Therapeutics sign global supply agreement", December 2024.
11. Ariceum Therapeutics and NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes, Ac-225 supply agreement (PR Newswire), December 2024.
12. ITM / Ariceum Ac-225 supply agreement, January 13, 2025.
13. Actinium Pharmaceuticals, press release (SEC Exhibit 99.1), August 14, 2026.

This article is independent market intelligence and not investment, legal or regulatory advice. Company names and trademarks are the property of their respective owners. © 2026 ProGen Search Limited.