TRIUMF spin-off company secures US$19M investment

ARTMS Inc. – a TRIUMF spin-off company and global leader in isotope production technology – has announced US$19 million in Series A financing from a consortium led by Deerfield Management Company and Quark Ventures. This funding builds on a US$3 million seed investment made in 2017 by Quark Ventures and GF Securities.

This latest round of private sector investment will enable ARTMS to continue building its team, while enlarging its product line and expanding further into global markets. With its TRIUMF origins, the success of ARTMS validates and highlights the critical role that Canada’s leading research facilities can play in solving real-world challenges.

“With this investment, we can continue to drive innovation within the nuclear medicine industry. ARTMS continues to take strides towards new developments in the production and global access to essential medical isotopes,” says Dr. Paul Schaffer, TRIUMF’s Associate Laboratory Director, Life Sciences, and ARTMS’ Chief Technical Officer.

ARTMS was established to commercialize isotope technology that was initially developed by TRIUMF, Canada’s particle accelerator centre, alongside partners at BC Cancer, the Centre for Probe Development and Commercialization, and the Lawson Health Research Institute.

Created in response to global shortages of key medical isotopes, this technology was incubated at TRIUMF, where it was supported by the federal Networks of Centres of Excellence Program. Critical Government of Canada support was also provided by Natural Resources Canada, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. ARTMS’ continued growth demonstrates the value and impact can be derived through targeted investments in innovation.

Leveraging existing cyclotrons located in medical facilities and hospitals around the world, ARTMS’ flagship product, the QUANTM Irradiation System^TM (QIS^TM), offers cost-effective, decentralized, and local production of a range of important medical isotopes, including gallium-68 (⁶⁸Ga), zirconium-89 (⁸⁹Zr), technetium‐99m (^99mTc) and copper-64 (⁶⁴Cu). Highly lauded, this technology was recognized with the 2015 NSERC Brockhouse Prize. ARTMS itself was awarded a 2017 Technology Impact Award from the BC Tech Association.

“ARTMS successfully securing Series A financing provides yet another example of how leading-edge research can be translated into innovations with global impact,” says Ms. Kathryn Hayashi, President and CEO, TRIUMF Innovations. “Through TRIUMF Innovations, TRIUMF’s commercialization arm, we are helping advance technologies from the laboratory to the marketplace.”

With today’s investment, ARTMS will continue to be headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, with its technology producing isotopes for patient use around the world.

Dr. Jonathan Bagger, Director of TRIUMF, celebrates ARTMS’ success, saying “Innovation has been central to TRIUMF since the laboratory was founded. I’m gratified to see ARTMS grow into a global leader in the nuclear medicine industry. It is yet another example of the close connection between research and industry that has made TRIUMF the success it is today.”

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