Building a global success
NTP is a key international player in the nuclear technology business — with a market footprint in 50 countries
SA has been producing medical radioisotopes — the active pharmaceutical ingredients used in nuclear medicine for diagnostic imaging and therapy — for over 40 years.
It’s only in the past two decades, however, that a little-known stateowned company, NTP Radioisotopes SOC, has emerged as a key international player in the nuclear technology business — with a market footprint that covers 50 countries and an annual turnover of more than R1.2bn.
This is remarkable, as NTP, a subsidiary of the SA Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), was posting a R10m annual loss just a few decades ago.
Nuclear medicine is a minimally invasive practice that uses minute amounts of radioactive isotopes (also called radioisotopes) primarily for medical imaging to view the structure and function of organs, bone, tissue or systems in the human body.
Unlike X-rays and other radiological imaging, nuclear medicine allows doctors to observe the bodily functions right down to a molecular level.
As a result, imaging obtained from nuclear medicine often allows a disease to be identified at a much earlier stage, before anatomical changes become visible. This allows physicians to target and treat certain conditions using medical radioisotopes.
Globally, the most important medical radioisotope is molybdenum-99 or Mo-99. The daughter product of Mo-99 is technetium99m (Tc-99m), which is used in over 40m nuclear medicine procedures each year. There are only four sites globally that are capable of producing commercial volumes of Mo-99, one of them being NTP Radioisotopes based in Pelindaba, just outside Pretoria.
Mo-99 is produced through a process of nuclear fission inside a nuclear reactor — in this case, the SAFARI-1 research reactor at Pelindaba. Mo-99 has a half-life of just 66 hours, which means it can’t be stockpiled and has to be constantly manufactured in fresh batches. Tc-99m has a half-life of just six hours, making it safe for medical use.
The latter emits low-energy gamma rays that are ideally suited for imaging using gamma cameras such as those in single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) imaging.
In addition to producing Mo-99 and Tc-99m, NTP manufactures two other reactor-based medical radioisotopes: iodine-131 and lutetium-177 n.c.a, both of which have diagnostic and therapeutic applications. The company also produces non-reactor-based medical radioisotopes in its onsite cyclotron.
Export sales account for about 90% of NTP’S revenue, and the company’s clients include global leaders in nuclear medicine imaging and diagnostics such as Lantheus Medical Imaging, GE Healthcare, Curium, Nihon Medi-physics, Jubilant Draximage, HTA Co, Samyoung Unitech and the Eczaibasi-monrol group.
The company’s biggest market is North America (30%), followed by the Far East (22%), Europe (15%) and South America (5%). The rest of the world, including SA, accounts for the balance of its market.
NTP has also established or acquired a number of wholly or partially owned subsidiary companies as the company's footprint has grown. Aec-amersham is a wholly owned subsidiary which markets NTP radiopharmaceuticals, healthcare and life science products in the African and Indian Ocean region, while NTP Logistics, a 51% owned company, specialises in the global distribution of hazardous and time-sensitive goods and provides logistics services to NTP as well as other industrial and corporate clients.
NTP as a group has had sustained growth in the past decade, passing the R1bn revenue mark in the 2014/2015 financial year and posting sales of over R1.2bn in 2015/2016.
According to group MD Tina Eboka, NTP is targeting a turnover of R2bn by the 2020/2021 financial year. NTP is also financially selfsufficient. “We receive no government funding, our only source of income is the sales we generate,” says Precious Hawadi, NTP group executive for finance.
Growth will come from the expansion of the company’s commercial operations in Africa as well as diversifying its product offering.
“Given that 90% of our revenue comes from global sales while only 10% is derived locally, our 2020/2021 target is achievable if we grow demand for nuclear medicine locally and grow our commercial operations in Africa. For this to happen it is imperative that we become more visible,” says Hawadi.
The company has grown its market share for Mo-99 through continued investment in produc-
What it means: In the past two decades NTP has emerged as a key international player in the nuclear technology business