Over 95% of lutetium-177 is import-dependent, and the production of reactor-sourced isotopes was once largely suspended: Adopting the technical route of nuclear-use electron linear accelerator, Inaer has broken through the long-standing bottleneck link in the upstream of the nuclear medicine industry.
Linear accelerator breaks the bottleneck of medical isotopes, Inuclear seeks financing
Medical isotopes are the core raw materials for nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment. China has long relied on imports, and the upstream supply gap restricts the independent development of the nuclear pharmaceutical industry. Inuclear (Suzhou) Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Inuclear") was established in January 2025, registered in Taicang, Suzhou, and is entering the upstream of the nuclear pharmaceutical industry chain with the project of "producing medical isotopes based on electron linear accelerator". At present, the project is promoting a new round of financing.
Reliance of medical isotopes on imports makes upstream supply a "stuck neck" link of the nuclear pharmaceutical industry
Medical isotopes run through all links of nuclear medicine diagnosis and treatment: from technetium-99m widely used in SPECT imaging to nuclides such as lutetium-177 and actinium-225 required for tumor targeted therapy, all are core substances for radiopharmaceuticals to function. However, for a long time, China's supply of medical isotopes has been highly dependent on imports. According to previous reports by CCTV News, more than 95% of important nuclides such as lutetium-177 in China rely on imports. Globally, the supply of medical isotopes has long been concentrated in a small number of production facilities. The International Atomic Energy Agency has also reminded that the supply of key medical isotopes is generally stable but still faces vulnerabilities.
Policies and capital are accelerating the change of this pattern. In June 2021, the China Atomic Energy Authority, together with eight departments including the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Transport, the National Health Commission, the National Healthcare Security Administration and the National Medical Products Administration, issued the *Medium and Long-term Development Plan for Medical Isotopes (2021—2035)*, proposing to establish a stable and independent medical isotope supply guarantee system. Market demand is rising simultaneously. Statistics from industry research institutions show that the domestic medical isotope market size in 2025 is about 4.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.3%. Since 2026, the nuclear pharmaceutical track has remained hot: Chengdu Newray Medical completed a single round of financing of 1 billion yuan, setting a new record in the domestic track, a subsidiary of Bristol-Myers Squibb invested 1.35 billion US dollars in targeted nuclear drugs for prostate cancer, and the insufficient supply of upstream nuclides has become a common shortboard faced by the whole industry.
Manufacturing nuclides with electron linear accelerator: from spatial design to development of key components
Inuclear's technical solution is "producing medical isotopes based on electron linear accelerator". The principle is: the electron linear accelerator accelerates the electron beam to a certain energy and then bombards the target to generate high-energy bremsstrahlung photons, which generate the target isotope after nuclear reaction with the target material, and the whole process does not rely on nuclear reactors. This route has completed the principle verification in China. The Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences once used the high-energy electron beam generated by the electron accelerator to irradiate the tantalum conversion target, and prepared molybdenum-99 through the reaction between bremsstrahlung and the molybdenum-100 target sheet. Compared with the reactor route, the accelerator solution has differentiated characteristics in construction period and deployment flexibility, providing a new supply source for medical isotope production.
Focusing on this route, Inuclear has completed a systematic layout covering qualification, equity and core components. The company has a registered capital of 11.3 million yuan, and its business scope for industrial and commercial registration covers links such as radiopharmaceutical production, drug production, radioactive source sales and ray device production and sales, with its registered address located in Taicang Biomedical Industrial Park (Taicang Star Pharmaceutical Port). According to Taicang Daily, as of March 2026, the spatial design of Inuclear's electron linear accelerator has been fully completed, and the accelerated copper cavity sample of the core component has been successfully developed. The company is simultaneously expanding its R&D team, publicly recruiting doctors and masters for positions in accelerator R&D, nuclide separation and purification, nuclear drug synthesis and laboratory director, to build a complete capability chain from accelerator devices to nuclide preparation, separation and purification, and drug synthesis.
In terms of team and governance, the company's legal representative is Ye Lun, and the executive director Luo Dan speaks for the company in public reports; the enterprise is a foreign-invested enterprise (non-sole proprietorship), and its shareholders include domestic and overseas entities such as Inu Jian R&D Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Inuclear Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership), Guangdong Kai Nuclear Nuclide Industry Investment Partnership (Limited Partnership).
Positioned as a nuclear pharmaceutical raw material supplier, new round of financing is underway
In terms of business model, Inuclear is positioned as a raw material supplier in the upstream of the nuclear pharmaceutical industry chain, supplying medical isotopes to nuclear drug R&D and production enterprises, and simultaneously deploying targeted nuclear drugs for cancer. Luo Dan, executive director of the company, previously stated that the company is expected to achieve an annual turnover of over 600 million yuan after it is officially put into operation. "As a raw material supplier of nuclear drugs, we can empower the entire nuclear pharmaceutical industry". The target users are mainly B-end entities such as radiopharmaceutical R&D and production enterprises; as the *Medium and Long-term Development Plan for Medical Isotopes (2021—2035)* promotes the construction of nuclear medicine service capacity, the plan proposes to realize the layout of nuclear medicine departments of "one county, one department" by 2035, and the demand for upstream nuclides is expected to continue to release.
In terms of industrial ecology, Taicang Biomedical Industrial Park has gathered nearly 500 biomedical enterprises. The park adopts the "base + fund" mode to provide carrier and capital support for settled enterprises. Inuclear has also been listed as a key enterprise by Suzhou's official reports that realizes technological breakthroughs and promotes industrialization by relying on scientific and innovation carriers, and has participated in the Life Health Special Session of Taicang International Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition as a representative of settled enterprises.
In terms of financing progress, Inuclear has completed multiple rounds of shareholder capital increase and equity adjustment since its establishment, and recently completed a round of equity/strategic financing with the amount undisclosed. At present, Inuclear is promoting a new round of financing, and the funds will be mainly invested in the construction of accelerator devices, the construction of medical isotope production lines and the expansion of R&D teams. In the industry window period of accelerating the localization of medical isotopes, Inuclear hopes to provide a more stable and independent upstream raw material supply for the nuclear pharmaceutical industry through the electron linear accelerator route.