The nation’s only Joint Commission-accredited radiopharmacy network is bringing life-saving nuclear medicines closer to patients

RLS Radiopharmacies, the only Joint Commission-accredited radiopharmacy network in the U.S., announced it is expanding its business operations with the addition of radiopharmaceutical contract development and manufacturing (rCDMO) services. The new offering will enable RLS to meet growing customer and industry demand for regional manufacturing capacity and redundancy, custom drug development, radioisotope production and same-day delivery services. This will help derisk the growing radiopharmaceutical pipeline and ensure that healthcare professionals and their patients have safe and reliable access to these life-saving drugs.

“There are currently more than 400 novel radiopharmaceuticals in various states of FDA approval, which is great news for patients suffering from hard-to-treat diseases and conditions,” RLS CEO Stephen Belcher. “However, while radiopharmaceuticals have much to offer, their success has been broadly hampered by manufacturing and supply chain issues. RLS aims to remedy this problem by bringing regional development, manufacturing and commercial distribution services to companies that want to guarantee patients have access to their products.”

RLS has dedicated 80,000 sq. ft. of available space across eight of its 31 radiopharmacies to the project. Operating under a distributed manufacturing model, RLS will be the first in the industry to provide rCDMO services across all US regions. RLS’s eight locations will be CGMP-ready by Q1 2024, equipped with skilled staff and state-of-the-art equipment for radiopharmaceutical development, production and manufacturing.

Outsourcing to RLS allows pharmaceutical companies to work more efficiently and effectively. Most companies don’t have the specialized buildings, equipment, talent or licensing to fully produce radiolabeled medicines on their own. And building those things from scratch can be extremely time-consuming and cost-prohibitive. RLS helps companies reduce costs, time-tomarket and risk by providing innovative, turnkey solutions that are safe, reliable and effective.

“One of the other reasons companies choose RLS is that we specialize in delivering radiopharmaceuticals,” added RLS COO Trey Bankson. “We cover 80% of the U.S. population and have our own couriers and fleet of delivery vehicles, ensuring radiopharmaceuticals reach the right place at the right time, every time. We also meet the industry’s most rigorous standards. And in most cases, we offer same-day commercial delivery.”

Supply chain safety and efficiency are absolutely critical for radiopharmaceutical production, especially given their time-sensitive nature. Radioactive materials are extremely sensitive and begin to decay within a short period of time, leaving just days between manufacturing and injection. This is concerning for patients in dire need of life-saving radiopharmaceuticals, as current supply chain limitations can force them to wait for more than a month for doses to be manufactured and delivered to the hospital. That’s the problem RLS’s purpose-built production and distribution network will solve by ensuring seamless last-mile delivery of patient-specific doses on a time-sensitive basis.

RLS is also developing partnerships that will help fill the demand for medical isotopes such as Actinium-225 (Ac-225) and Lutetium-177 (Lu 177), which are currently in very short supply. For more about RLS, visit RLS.Bio.