Delivering chemotherapies is often a race against the clock. Because these are radioactive materials, they deteriorate, requiring tight coordination to get them from manufacturing sites to hospitals before they decay.

Nucleus RadioPharma, a Rochester-based med tech company, is hoping to tighten that process with $50 million in financing from OrbiMed, a global New York-based health care investment firm.

The company plans to use the capital to expand its manufacturing capacity at its flagship facility in Rochester even further and begin construction on a second site outside Philadelphia.

The goal is to build a regional network capable of producing radiopharmaceuticals, highly targeted cancer therapies made with radioactive materials, and delivering them before they lose potency.

Radiopharmaceuticals are designed to destroy cancer cells while minimizing damage to healthy tissue. The more targeted the cancer therapy, the better the balance of benefits to side-effect risks, says Nucleus’ strategy consultant Welela Tereffe.

“Manufacturing has been an issue for the field over the last couple of years,” CEO Stephen Hahn says, noting that radioactive materials decay quickly.

That decay rate, known as half-life, can range from eight hours to 10 days depending on the isotope (or, radioactive particle), he adds.

Nucleus is building its 3.5-year-old business around that challenge, manufacturing therapies and managing the logistics to get them to patients. Its core value proposition is simple: fix the supply chain bottlenecks that Hahn says have slowed the field’s growth. Expanding its manufacturing capacity will get more of the radiopharmaceuticals out to patients in need.

“The nature of radiopharmaceuticals, which have a half-life and a shelf life that’s shorter than other drugs, means that having regional capabilities to manufacture them and get them reliably… to cancer patients is really important,” Hahn says. “So, the money’s critical for us.”

Founded in late 2022 with backing from Mayo Clinic and Eclipse Ventures, Nucleus launched in 2023 with $56 million in Series A funding from investors including Mayo, GE HealthCare, and the University of Missouri.

On Monday, the company opened the Rochester manufacturing facility, located on the Mayo Clinic campus. The Philadelphia-area hub is part of a plan to have a new regional center operational by 2026–2027.

“Our facility in Rochester will allow us to manufacture drugs for clinical trials,” Hahn says. “With Mayo Clinic being such a big proponent of administrative drugs and clinical trials, it’s a natural fit.”

Nucleus currently employs 56 full-time workers and plans to add staff weekly as it ramps toward full operations. Destination Medical Center provided local grant support for the expansion.

“We’re likely to see significant advancements in this field over the next couple of years,” Hahn says. “Nucleus wants to be positioned to be able to help cancer patients receive those drugs.”