Shine Medical Technologies, a Middleton-based company dedicated to being the world leader in safe, clean, affordable production of medical isotopes and cancer treatment elements, announced today it intends to build a new manufacturing plant in Janesville.

The plant, which is scheduled for completion in 2015, will create more than 100 new jobs, with the potential for additional employment growth in the future.

Several Wisconsin communities had been vying to become the location for the new Shine Medical Technologies plant in recent months.

Founded in 2010 to pursue opportunities presented by its novel technology, Shine Medical Technologies is based on inventions co-licensed with Phoenix Nuclear Labs. With its laboratory in the Middleton Business Park just west of Madison, Shine received initial support from Wisconsin Investment Partners, individual angel investors and the Morgridge Institute for Research.

The new plant will enable Shine to become the first large-scale domestic supplier of molybdenum-99 (moly-99), a medical isotope that is used in more than 30 diagnostic imaging procedures. Each day in the United States alone, more than 50,000 diagnostic nuclear medicine procedures take place that rely on moly-99, creating a $500 million annual worldwide market.

"The medically important isotope, moly-99, is crucial to the successful diagnosis of cancer and heart disease throughout the world," said Dr. Richard Steeves, M.D., Ph.D., professor emeritus of human oncology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "With moly-99, physicians can determine the extent to which heart disease or cancer has spread, information which is critical to successful treatment."

"We are very excited to call Janesville home and to become part of the community as an employer and corporate citizen," said Greg Piefer, Ph.D., founder and chief executive officer of Shine. "As a company that grew in partnership with research conducted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Morgridge Institute for Research, one of our primary goals was to stay in-state and take advantage of the dedicated, talented workforce available here. The city leaders of Janesville worked closely with us to ensure that we brought our plant and its potential high-paying jobs into this community."

The announcement of the new plant is a welcome development for Janesville, which was battered by the closure of a former General Motors Corp. assembly plant.

"It is exciting to welcome Shine to the Janesville community not only for the jobs being created, but because it represents a new economy business built on research and innovation," said Eric Levitt, Janesville city manager. "We have conducted extensive planning and research with Shine and are confident theirs is a safe, cutting-edge technology that will create local jobs and showcase successful pharmaceutical research, development and production in Wisconsin."

The Janesville City Council is scheduled to vote on the Shine development agreement in February.