Isotope profile
Copper-67
Cu-67 · Copper
Copper-67 is Cu-64's therapeutic twin: the same targeting chemistry that images a patient then treats them, over a 2.6-day half-life at gigabecquerel therapy activity.
Public data & model inputs
Beta / positron- Half-life
- 61.8 hours
- Decay mode
- β⁻
- Charged-particle energy per decay
- 0.141 MeV
- G(H₂O₂) yield
- 0.70
- Clinical use
- Radionuclide therapy
The radiolytic profile
Why Cu-67 is hard
Cu-67 is the therapeutic half of the copper pair: chemically identical to Cu-64, so a patient can be imaged and treated with the same targeting chemistry. It carries the lowest mean beta energy in the roster, near 0.14 MeV, so each decay is gentle on the surrounding water. What raises its burden is scale and time: therapeutic use means gigabecquerel activity, and the 2.6-day half-life sustains it across days.
Low per-decay energy offset by high activity on a multi-day clock is the Cu-67 signature. As the diagnostic-therapeutic pairing with Cu-64 moves further into the clinic and therapy volumes grow, that sustained beta burden becomes the shelf-life question for the therapeutic member of the pair.
The modeled run
One clinical scenario, uncoated vs DuraRad
The run below models a representative Cu-67 therapy vial across two half-lives: uncoated, then with a DuraRad coating on the same geometry.
Scenario: 4 GBq Cu-67 · 10R/5 mL vial · 5.2 days window (two half-lives)
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Modeled reduction in cumulative peroxide exposure
99.8%
Not a measure of drug protected
- Uncoated peak (upper bound)
- 317.1 µM
- DuraRad peak [H₂O₂]
- 857.1 nM
- Cumulative exposure (AUC)
- 24.26 mM·h → 0.058 mM·h −99.8% modeled
- Modeled peak reduction
- −99.7% 370x lower peak peroxide
Modeled from measured peroxide clearance in DuraRad vials and literature radiolysis yields. Radioactive validation designed and scheduled for Q4 2026 at Washington University in St. Louis.
Model & validation detail
Pseudo-first-order H₂O₂ clearance, k = 0.107 min⁻¹ (Batch 2, 6R / 3.0 mL). Generation from literature G-values. Performance under continuous irradiation not yet validated.
The DuraRad answer
How DuraRad protects this product
DuraRad lines the vial wall with a sol-gel coating that holds immobilized manganese SOD and catalase, bonded to the glass rather than dissolved into the formulation. Radiolysis of the water generates superoxide and hydrogen peroxide throughout the solution, at random positions and in every direction; the fraction that diffuses to the wall is consumed there, with SOD converting superoxide to peroxide and oxygen and catalase breaking that peroxide down to water and oxygen. The coating works as a distributed sink at the wall, lowering the steady-state concentration of superoxide and peroxide in the vial and reducing the average oxidative burden on the drug. Clearing that peroxide at the wall keeps its concentration low over the shelf life and lowers the oxidative load on the drug.
Cu-67's low-energy beta, mean near 0.14 MeV, is gentle per decay, but gigabecquerel therapy activity across a 2.6-day half-life keeps the water radiolyzing steadily for days. That sustained, low-rate generation is a good fit for a sink that turns over on a timescale of minutes: superoxide and peroxide are consumed at the wall many times faster than the slow decay replenishes them, so the model holds their equilibrium concentration well below the uncoated accumulation across the run. The modeled suppression is large, but it is modeled and not yet measured; the Q4 2026 radioactive validation at Washington University in St. Louis is designed to test it.
Where it's going
Every Cu-67 dose is headed for a scanner or a treatment room, where arriving intact is the whole point.
Keep exploring
More of the roster
Model Copper-67 against your own dose.
Open the simulator pre-loaded with Cu-67 and adjust activity, vial format, and fill volume, reserve coated vials to test on your own bench, or talk to us about your product.