NorthStar Medical Technologies

Company Overview

US radiopharma company NorthStar Medical Technologies makes the raw material that a new generation of cancer drugs cannot do without. From one campus in Wisconsin, the privately held company produces two therapeutic radioisotopes, actinium-225 (Ac-225) and copper-67 (Cu-67), using electron accelerators rather than uranium, and turns them into finished doses through its own contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO). In January 2026 it became the first in the industry to produce no-carrier-added Ac-225 at commercial scale with electron-accelerator technology. More than 30 drug developers now buy from it. In a field short of alpha-emitting isotopes, that makes NorthStar a supplier the industry is watching.

Headquarters and Global Presence

NorthStar is based in Beloit, Wisconsin, where its headquarters, isotope processing, three electron accelerators and dose manufacturing sit on one campus. The location is the strategy: making the isotope and the finished drug on the same site means simpler logistics, minimal shipping and less of a decaying isotope lost along the way.

Founding and History

NorthStar was founded in Madison in 2006 to fix a supply problem in nuclear medicine. Its first business was molybdenum-99 (Mo-99), and in February 2018 the FDA approved its RadioGenix System, making it the first US source of Mo-99 in more than 25 years. Rising costs and subsidized foreign rivals led it to stop Mo-99 production at the end of 2023 and bet on therapy.

Therapy Areas and Focus

NorthStar does not develop drugs of its own; its customers do, and almost all of them work in cancer. Ac-225 is an alpha emitter, delivering high-energy radiation over a very short range, so it can kill targeted cancer cells while limiting damage to nearby healthy tissue. It can be attached to antibodies, peptides or small molecules. Cu-67 is used in radiopharmaceutical therapy for prostate cancer, neuroendocrine tumors, neuroblastoma and other adult and pediatric cancers. The company says its isotopes are in clinical studies in prostate, lung, breast and colon cancer, lymphoma and neuroendocrine tumors. Its fortunes are tied to oncology's move into radiopharmaceuticals rather than to any single indication.

Technology Platforms and Modalities

The technology is what sets NorthStar apart. Instead of uranium, it uses electron beam accelerators, including IBA Rhodotron machines, and makes Ac-225 by an indirect route: it irradiates a radium-226 target, then uses the resulting radium-225 as a source from which Ac-225 continually grows in. The product is no-carrier-added and of high radionuclidic purity, which matters when a drugmaker attaches it to a targeting molecule. In April 2026 the FDA accepted NorthStar's Type II Drug Master File for the isotope, so drug sponsors can now reference its manufacturing data directly in Investigational New Drug (IND) and New Drug Application (NDA) submissions. For customers heading toward approval, that removes a step.

Key Pipeline and Programs

NorthStar's pipeline is a production pipeline. Its first pair of accelerators makes Cu-67 on a routine basis. Ac-225 production began in the fourth quarter of 2025 in a dedicated facility built around a third accelerator, and in January 2026 the company confirmed routine output of millicurie quantities on a weekly cycle. A high-capacity Ac-225 line is due to come on stream later in 2026.

The programs that use its isotopes belong to customers. Convergent Therapeutics makes CONV01-α, a PSMA-targeted Ac-225 radioantibody for metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer, in dedicated suites on the Beloit campus. Clarity Pharmaceuticals relies on NorthStar for Cu-67 and finished 67Cu-SAR-bisPSMA drug product for its Phase I/II and Phase III prostate cancer trials. Bayer takes Ac-225 for several of its radiopharmaceutical programs, and the CDMO is supporting Lu177-LT17, a radioligand therapy for cancer-associated bone disease, for the Low Institute for Therapeutics. NorthStar sponsors no study of its own on the ClinicalTrials.gov registry. The measure of its progress is volume: whether the new line delivers enough Ac-225 for late-stage trials and launches.

Recent Developments

On September 29, 2026 NorthStar secured a multi-year growth capital facility of up to $185 million from Hercules Capital (NYSE: HTGC), with $100 million upfront. The money goes into isotope production and clinical and commercial drug manufacturing, including the move to the high-capacity Ac-225 line. It follows the April 2026 Drug Master File acceptance and a May 2026 agreement with QSA Global, which will purify legacy radium-226 into targets and recycle the radium NorthStar recovers, a closed loop for the starting material of Ac-225. The financing is the clearest sign yet that NorthStar has moved from building capacity to selling it.

Key Personnel

Frank Scholz is president and chief executive. He joined in 2021 as chief operating officer and took the top job in 2023, after senior roles at AlixPartners, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals and McKinsey & Company. James Harvey, a nuclear chemist, is chief science officer, and Jeff Schaaf, chief technology officer, set up the CDMO operation. Victor Miller became chief financial officer in December 2025, and Kathy Spencer-Pike, formerly of Nucleus RadioPharma and McKesson, is chief commercial officer. Jon Coulter of Hendricks Holding Company chairs the board.

Strategic Partnerships

Hendricks Holding Company, founded by Diane Hendricks and her late husband Kenneth, is NorthStar's majority shareholder. Its commercial partners are its customers: besides Bayer, Convergent and Clarity, it has Ac-225 supply deals with Alpha-9 Oncology, Ariceum Therapeutics, Cellectar Biosciences and PeptiDream's PDRadiopharma.

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