MDS Nordion Signs 17-year Contract With Rosenergoatom

Main Category: Radiology / Nuclear Medicine
Article Date: 21 Oct 2007 - 4:00 PDT

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MDS Nordion, a leading provider of medical isotopes and radiopharmaceuticals, signed a 17-year contract for the supply of cobalt-60 with Rosenergoatom, the operating utility of Russia's nuclear power plants. This contract expands upon the 2005 agreement by providing for an increased supply of cobalt-60 to MDS Nordion until 2024. As a result, MDS Nordion's overall supply will increase by approximately 30% by 2016. Cobalt-60 is primarily used for the sterilization of hospital medical supplies and pharmaceuticals to help prevent patient infection and disease by reducing harmful bacteria.

"As demand for cobalt-60 increases each year, this contract is great news for the global medical community," said Steve West, President, MDS Nordion. "It demonstrates MDS Nordion's ongoing commitment to provide customers a long-term supply to meet their growing sterilization needs."

Cobalt-60 is used worldwide to sterilize 45% of all disposable medical devices such as surgeons' gloves, syringes, sutures, and catheters. This sterilization process has been used for more than 40 years, having been proven safe, reliable and highly effective.

"Rosenergoatom plays an important role in providing a consistent supply of cobalt-60," remarks Valery Lebedev, a Deputy Director General at Rosenergoatom. "Unlike most power reactors, Rosenergoatom can harvest cobalt-60 while the reactor is in operation. This allows MDS Nordion to more closely match cobalt-60 supply to customer demand by increasing the reliability and efficiency of the overall supply chain."

About MDS Nordion

MDS Nordion is a world leader in medical isotopes, radiation and related technologies. It is a business unit of MDS Inc. (TSX:MDS)(NYSE:MDZ). MDS Inc. is a global life sciences company that provides market-leading products and services for the development of drugs and diagnosis and treatment of disease. We are a leading global provider of pharmaceutical contract research, medical isotopes for molecular imaging, radiotherapeutics, and analytical instruments. MDS Inc. has more than 6,200 highly skilled people in 28 countries. Find out more at http://www.mdsinc.com.

About Rosenergoatom Rosenergoatom was established by the decree of the President of the Russian Federation on September 7th, 1992 as the operating utility of Russia's nuclear power plants. Rosenergoatom operates all 10 state-owned Russian nuclear power facilities with a total of 31 nuclear reactors and an installed electrical capacity of 23,242 Megawatts. Rosenergoatom has also increased electric and thermal power output and recently commissioned two new power reactors; Volgodonsk-1 and Kalinin-3. More information may be found at http://www.rosenergoatom.ru/eng/.

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