NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to produce the isotope Molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) from concentrated Mo-98 (cMo-98), the company announced recently.

“This approval of production utilizing cMo-98 … is a transformational event for NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes and a key milestone in significantly increasing domestic production and capacity of non-uranium based Mo-99 for the United States,” NorthStar Medical Radioisotopes CEO Stephen Merrick said in a statement.

According to a release, the new production process will increase by up to four times the production capacity of Mo-99 and enable NorthStar to provide customers with higher activity source vessels.