Who Owns Cardinal Health Nuclear & Precision Health Solutions?

Cardinal Health's nuclear medicine business traces its roots to 1956, when the company's predecessor operations began supplying radioactive materials for medical use. Nuclear medicine was a nascent field at the time. Physicians had begun using radioactive isotopes for diagnostic imaging and cancer treatment, but the supply chain for these materials was fragmented and unreliable.

Over the following decades, Cardinal Health built a national network of nuclear pharmacies. These specialized facilities compound radiopharmaceuticals and distribute them to hospitals and imaging centers. The key challenge in nuclear pharmacy is that many radiopharmaceuticals have extremely short half-lives. Technetium-99m, the most commonly used medical radioisotope, has a half-life of only six hours. This means radiopharmaceuticals must be produced and delivered within hours of when they are needed for patient procedures.

Cardinal Health addressed this challenge by establishing a network of over 160 nuclear pharmacies positioned near major population centers. Each pharmacy compounds radiopharmaceuticals daily and ships them to local hospitals and clinics. This network gives Cardinal Health the largest nuclear pharmacy footprint in the United States.

The division evolved beyond traditional nuclear pharmacy in the 2010s as theranostics emerged as a treatment approach. Theranostics combines diagnostic imaging with targeted therapy. The same radioactive isotope used to identify a tumor can be paired with a therapeutic isotope to treat it. This approach is particularly promising for certain cancers, including neuroendocrine tumors and prostate cancer.

In 2023, Cardinal Health opened the Center for Theranostics Advancement (CTA) in Indianapolis, Indiana. The CTA is a dedicated facility for producing and researching theranostic agents. It focuses on isotopes such as Actinium-225 (Ac-225), Lutetium-177, and Copper-67, which are used in targeted alpha and beta radiotherapy.

In April 2026, Cardinal Health announced a significant expansion of its Actinium-225 production capabilities at the CTA. Ac-225 is a radioisotope used in investigational therapeutic drug products and is being studied for use in novel cancer therapies. The expansion substantially increases the supply available for clinical research and future commercial manufacturing. This positions Cardinal Health as a key supplier in the emerging targeted alpha therapy market.

The NPHS division also provides precision health solutions beyond nuclear medicine. This includes supporting clinical research networks with radiopharmaceutical supply for clinical trials. In the third quarter of fiscal year 2026, Cardinal Health announced that Specialty Networks and The Specialty Alliance entered an arrangement to partner with a pharmaceutical company on a multi-year study focused on real-world outcomes. Patients in this study will receive care at community gastroenterology clinics, with Specialty Networks performing the analysis.

The growth of theranostics has made NPHS a strategically important division within Cardinal Health. While the Other segment represents only a small fraction of total company revenue, its 31% growth rate in fiscal year 2026 far exceeds the core pharmaceutical distribution business. Nuclear medicine and theranostics are among the fastest-growing areas in healthcare, driven by advances in cancer treatment and diagnostic imaging.