Natural Resources committee  I think that's a question that lies at the heart of the future planning and the future evolution of our discipline that I mentioned. I think at the moment there's no doubt that the use of reactors to produce molybdenum is the most effective way of producing medical isotopes. We

Natural Resources committee  It's important to recognize that this is a national chart; it reflects supply over the whole country. The first of the troughs was obviously immediately after the shutdown of NRU. The second trough was caused by the planned one-month shutdown in August of the Petten reactor. We a

Natural Resources committee  I'm not addressing the Ontario issue, but the issue of cost was discussed at the federal-provincial-territorial ministers meeting in September. This is why I stressed in my initial presentation that it is important to understand the financial impact at the individual hospital lev

Natural Resources committee  Thank you. The CAMRT survey was very useful because it did answer some of the questions. If you look at some of the degrees to which they are concerned, most of them, about two-thirds of the centres that responded, are having to add shifts and work. As we look across the count

Natural Resources committee  I'm going to answer that in two ways, if I may. The first is that individual hospitals or pharmacies will negotiate and have a contract with the supplier of a generator. Those contracts will be up on a rolling basis, so this comes back to some of the cost issues. It also comes ba

Natural Resources committee  Across the country, it's sort of 75-25, but with huge regional variability. For example, in the east, Lantheus is a much bigger supplier than in the west, where Covidien is a bigger supplier.

Natural Resources committee  Covidien and Lantheus have been sharing when they can, but it does add to the fragility. So I think we're dealing with that. The second way is supply of molybdenum to the individual generator manufacturer and the approval of the molybdenum supply from a regulatory point of view.

Natural Resources committee  Mr. Chair, honourable members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity of again appearing before you to discuss this issue. As I was coming to Ottawa, it occurred to me that this is an issue that, after many weeks of intense discussion in the press, has rather fallen off