Veteran global leader in nuclear medicine will oversee business and go to market strategies for therapeutic and diagnostic isotopes
JANESVILLE, Wis., Sept. 11, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — SHINE Technologies, LLC, a next-generation fusion technology company, today announced that Harrie Buurlage has been named Chief Commercial Officer of Isotopes. Buurlage, who has been the General Manager of SHINE Europe since 2019, will now oversee all commercial aspects of SHINE’s therapeutic and diagnostic medical isotope divisions. Supporting Buurlage in driving the growth of SHINE’s medical isotope business will be Magdalena Brzezowska, a proven leader with extensive commercial experience in radiopharmaceuticals, who has been named Vice President of Sales and Business Development.
Buurlage’s experience includes three decades in the nuclear medicine industry, encompassing management and marketing roles. He was the Chief Operating Officer at NRG in the Netherlands, overseeing key nuclear installations, and the global director for nuclear manufacturing at Covidien USA, now Curium Pharma. With 15 years at Mallinckrodt and an applied physics background from the University of Groningen, he also holds Europe’s highest certification, the senior radiation safety officer from the University of Leiden, qualifying him to supervise complex nuclear sites.
[“We are on the cusp of dramatically altering the global medical isotope supply chain , so it only makes sense to have one of the world’s more experienced business leaders in nuclear medicine at the helm,” said Greg Piefer, founder and CEO of SHINE. “Harrie has been a key member of my team over the past four years, and we’re excited to leverage his growth experience and industry expertise as we bring North America’s largest lutetium-177 production facility online.”]
Lu-177 is a radioactive agent that, when paired with a cancer-seeking molecule, delivers highly targeted radiation to cancer metastases, killing cancer cells while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy cells. The new facility at SHINE’s headquarters in Janesville, Wisconsin, is expected to have an initial production capacity of 100,000 doses of life-saving medicine per year, with expanded capacity to 200,000 doses per year in the future.
“SHINE is well-positioned to provide increased access to life-saving medicine, and I look forward to helping usher in the next era of medical isotope production,” Buurlage said. “What we are doing is vitally important to patients needing diagnosis and treatment of cancer and illnesses around the globe.”
SHINE plans to become the world’s first vertically integrated supplier of Lu-177. Along with producing its own ytterbium-176, the company plans to be able to use its fusion-driven neutron source, The Chrysalis, for irradiation in the production of Lu-177. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued its Final Safety Evaluation Report related to the Operating License Application for that facility earlier this year.
About SHINE Technologies
Based in Janesville, Wisconsin, SHINE deploys its safe, cost-effective and environmentally friendly fusion technology in a stepwise approach. Its systems are used to inspect industrial components in aerospace, defense, energy and other sectors. SHINE’s proprietary medical isotope production processes create non-carrier-added lutetium-177 and are expected to create molybdenum-99. In the future, SHINE plans to scale its fusion technology to help solve one of energy’s toughest hurdles by recycling nuclear waste. Through a purpose-driven and phased approach, SHINE aims to generate fusion power to deliver clean, abundant energy that could transform life on Earth. Want to learn more about SHINE? Visit www.shinefusion.com and follow us @shinefusion.
SOURCE SHINE Technologies, LLC