Purchase Expands Sealed Air’s Reach in Central America
Last year, Sealed Air President and CEO William V. Hickey promised shareholders that he’d accelerate the company’s growth in developing regions. And, just several days into the new year, Hickey delivered on his promise.
On Jan. 5, Sealed Air purchased the Costa Rica operation of Advanced Thermoforming Enterprise (ATE), a privately owned medical thermoforming company based in Oceanside, Calif. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though Sealed Air executives do not expect the transaction to be material to the firm’s consolidated financial position or results of operations.
Sealed Air plans to integrate the Costa Rica facility into its existing Medical Applications business unit, which develops custom thermoformed products as well as medical and pharmaceutical films. ATE custom designs thermoformed components for the medical, pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical markets; its Costa Rica plant opened in 2005 and features Class 8 (100,000) cleanroom facilities. The site is ISO 9001:2008 certified for medical device packaging.
“We are very excited to expand our operations to Costa Rica,” Teresa Preskar, vice president and general manager for Sealed Air Medical Applications, said in a news release. “ATE enjoys excellent business relationships in the country and this site will become a key element of Sealed Air Medical’s strategic expansion into Central and Latin America. The medical sector in Costa Rica has experienced significant growth and a large number of our existing medical device and pharmaceutical customers have already set up manufacturing facilities there. With the purchase of ATE Costa Rica, we will provide local access to products and services with the design and technical expertise already in place in the United States and Europe.”
The Costa Rican medical deviceindustry has grown exponentially over the last decade, rising from 8 companies in 2000 to 38 in 2010, according to Costa Rica Vice President Luis Liberman. Medical industry exports totaled $1.2 billion in 2010, representing 24 percent of the country’s total exports. Government forecasts call for annual growth of more than 13 percent through 2015. Companies with facilities in the 19,730-square-mile country include Abbott Vascular, Volcano Corporation, St. Jude Medical Inc., Boston Scientific Corp., Hospira Inc., Hologic Inc., Tegra Medical, BeamOne LLC (acquired last year by Synergy Health plc), NDC and Merrill’s Packaging Inc., among others.
Sealed Air Medical Applications develops packaging systems for the medical device and pharmaceutical industries under the Nelipak and Nexcel brands. These products include high-barrier hypoallergenic films for ostomy bags, non-pvc materials for intravenous solutions, and custom-designed trays and die-cut lids for medical devices. In addition, the Nelipak Total Validation service provides full package testing to International Organization for Standardization guidelines.
One of the company’s newest technologies is the Latitude film, ML29. This polyolefin-based coextruded forming film for packaging medical devices on horizontal thermoform-fill-seal equipment was developed as an alternative to ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA)/Ionomer/EVA materials. Latitude’s structure allows the film to surpass the physical attributes of EVA/ Ionomer/EVA films at a 25 percent lower gauge in both tensile strength and puncture resistance.
Latitude is gamma and ETO stable as well as biocompatible. It contains exceptional corner and pocket forming capabilities, and is designed to seal and peel well to a range of breathable and radiation sterilized top webs, according to the company.
Able Electropolishing Adds to its Workforce
Lingering aftershocks from the Great Recession still are making many employers wary of hiring new help, but Able Electropolishing Co. Inc. is among the few that are expanding its workforce. The Chicago, Ill.-based electropolishing specialist has hired 14 new employees to help meet customer demand.
Able executives attribute the surge in demand to the firm’s customer outreach efforts. “By providing educational materials to manufacturing and design engineers, we have been able to generate additional sales opportunities and at the same time we have helped OEMs improve their products,” said Tom Glass, vice president of sales.
Electropolishing often is referred to as a “reverse plating” process. Electrochemical in nature, the process uses a combination of rectified current and a blended chemical electrolyte bath to remove flaws from the surface of a metal part. Able bills itself as the nation’s largest electropolishing specialist, offering services ranging from passivation, titanium anodizing and deburring to brite passivation, titanium finishing and ultracleaning.
Michigan Workers Give PTI a Top Rating
One worker cited training. Another referred to its forward vision, while others mentioned team spirit.
Though each expressed different opinions, the employees all shared one common trait—they work for PTI Engineered Plastics Inc., a Macomb, Mich.-based plastic injection molding company founded in 1984. The firm recently was named a “Top 100” company in Michigan based on employee feedback in a survey conducted by WorkplaceDynamics on behalf of the Detroit Free Press.
The honor is the first of its kind for PTI despite being nominated previously for the title in its size category (150 to 499 workers). “It was an honor to be nominated for the last two years, but especially gratifying to make the list this year,” PTI President Kurt Nerva said. “We value our employees and strive to provide them with a positive, motivating environment.”
Many employee comments from the surveys cited PTI’s motivating environment as their favorite aspect of the job. A number of respondents also liked the firm’s “team” atmosphere. “I find being part of a team most meaningful,” one worker wrote in response to the question, “The things I like most about my job.”
“We are only as strong as our weakest member and I feel we all strive to do our best.”
“It really does feel like I am part of a team and I am generally happy each day to come to PTI to work,” agreed another employee. “I truly enjoy all of the people I work with.”
Employees that participated in WorkplaceDynamics’s survey rated their respective companies based on direction, conditions, execution, pay and benefits, career, and managers. Respondents answered 25 questions, providing their opinions (from “strongly agree” and “slightly agree” to “slightly disagree” and “strongly disagree”) on queries about salary, company values and ethics, encouragement of new ideas, formal training, confidence in corporate leadership, and operational efficiency. Participants also were given the opportunity to suggest improvements for their employers.
Based in Exton, Pa., WorkplaceDynamics describes itself as a partnership that helps clients “create places where people want to work.” The 6-year-old entity has an office in London, England, and employs 26 people, according to its website.
PTI maintains a 115,000-square-foot facility in Michigan that serves the medical, transportation, defense, aerospace, electronics and consumer products industries. Last year, the company established a stand-alone product design and development firm, PTI Design, and added laser marking capabilities to its suite ofcustomer offerings. Theacquisition of the Telesis E-Series, EV15 Class 4 Marking System with Class 1 Lasing U.S. Food and Drug Administration-certified enclosure enables the firm to provide customers with a 6.89 x 6.89 marking window of permanent precision quality surface engraving.
EO Facility is a First forSynergy Health
Forget emerging markets. Synergy Health plc is focusing its expansion efforts in the United States.
The Swindon, United Kingdom-based provider of healthcare-related outsourced support services recently opened its first ethylene oxide (EO) medical device sterilization service center in the United States. The center is located in Oldsmar, Fla., a Pinellas County municipality whose history dates back nearly 100 years to automobile pioneer Ransom E. Olds, designer of the Oldsmobile and REO brand vehicles, and the first person to use the assembly line in the automotive industry.
The EO facility, dubbed Synergy Health Oldsmar, houses a 24-pallet sterilizer and two large aeration rooms, according to the company. It can perform various services including cycle development, qualification, cycle optimization and routine processing activities.
“We are pleased to be able to offer our customers an additional choice in sterilization modality,” noted Synergy Health Americas CEO Glenn Thibault. “Synergy Health’s new Florida EO facility will operate with the same quality and customer relations excellence found in our electron beam service centers.
With our new ability to offer both EO and ebeam processing, we hope to gain new customers as well as expand even further our partnerships with existing ones.”
Synergy Health Oldsmar is the company’s only EO service center based in the United States. The company operates electron beam sterilization centers in San Diego, Calif.; Denver, Colo.; Lima, Ohio; Saxonburg, Pa.; and a fifth site in Costa Rica (where it also maintains an EO facility).
Last spring, Synergy Health acquired BeamOne, a provider of outsourced, e-beam medical device sterilization services, for $35 million. Synergy employs more than 4,000 people and operates 28 sterilization service centers worldwide, offering expertise in EO, gamma, electron beam and ion beam technologies. It also operates several microbiological testing laboratories and more than 20 hospital reusable product sterilization facilities in Europe and Asia.
Consultancy Firm Adds West Coast Presence
Bonifacio Consulting Services LLC is now a bicoastal firm.
The Natick, Mass.-based company is joining forces with John Thomas Consulting of Huntington Beach, Calif. The move expands the capabilities of Bonifacio Consulting Services (BCS) while giving the company a presence in Southern California, an area with a growing medical device sector.
“I have worked with Mark Bonifacio as a customer and service provider since the 1990s and we have always had a very open, collaborative and productive working relationship,” said Thomas. “I am excited to bring our work to the next level where we can leverage our strengths as a team.”
Thomas has worked as an engineer, manager and consultant in the medical device, consumer goods and plastics industries since graduating from UMass, Lowell, in 1993. He has an MBA from the University of Southern California.
“John’s business acumen teamed with his strong technical knowledge and leadership skills make him a true A player,” BCS President Mark Bonifacio said. “John’s ethics and personality in working with all levels, from CEO to the shop floor, make him a truly unique leader and team player.”
BCS is a global manufacturing consultancy firm with a focus on plastics, medical devices, contract manufacturing and outsourcing. The company provides engineered and supply chain solutions to both OEMs and smaller entities. In addition, the firm advises, provides merger and acquisition services, market research and strategic planning services to mid-market OEMs and contract manufacturers. Bonifacio is a 25-year medical device industry veteran with a bachelor of science degree in plastics engineering from UMass, Lowell.
India Planning to Revise its Drugs and Cosmetics Act
For years, companies worldwide haverecognized the potential of India’s medical device market. So has the local government, though traditionally it has been slow to take advantage of that interest.
Until now.
Late last year, Indian Drug Controller General VG Somani said the country’s Health Ministry is planning to amend the 72-year-old Drugs and Cosmetics Act in order to recognize medical devices as a separate category. The move, he noted, would simplify regulation and give a fillip to the segment, valued at $2.7 billion (the fourth-largest in Asia) and expected to reach $6 billion by 2015, according to data from the United States International Trade Commission (USITC). Industry pundits expect India to surpass China in population by the middle of this century, with the number of elderly residents (those 60 and older) projected to reach nearly 200 million people by 2025. As in other parts of the developed world, this rapid rise in elderly residents most likely will lead to an increase in spinal, bone and joint-related afflictions, which in turn, will drive the need for orthopedic devices such as joint replacements, artificial discs and bone replacement products. Over the next three years, in fact, India’s orthopedic device market is estimated to reach nearly $600 million, USITC figures indicate.
Cardiac devices and blood glucose monitoring products are expected to be in demand too, as affluence among India’s upper middle-class swells to more than 40 percent of the population over the next two decades. The USITC claims the country currently has the world’s highest number of diabetics and will have the greatest incidence of cardiovascular disease by 2020, prompting the need for such equipment as pacemakers, electrocardiograph machines, diabetes test strips and insulin pumps.
To accommodate and benefit this growth, however, the Indian government first must strengthen the device industry. Separating medical devices from drugs and cosmetics is a good first step, as it will ensure easier regulation of medical products, Somani said. Authorities also are considering creating five medical device testing laboratories, three diagnostic device testing laboratories and opening a National Drug Regulatory Training Agency. “There is an urgent need [to] strengthen infrastructure and manpower in the medical devices sector,” Somani told the Business Standard of New Delhi.
There also is an urgent need to streamline the Indian healthcare system to better accommodate medical technology, as large OEMs—namely Medtronic Inc. and St. Jude Medical Inc.—establish operations there to capitalize on the device industry’s anticipated explosive growth. To streamline the healthcare system though, experts believe the Indian government must focus on solutions in three areas: cost, geography and technology.
India’s healthcare system is costly and for the most part, based largely on patient pay. Kaustav Banerjee, St. Jude county manager for India, suggested that government officials and medical device industry representatives work together to reduce healthcare costs to increase access to devices. The government already has taken steps to reduce costs by improving reimbursement rates for low-income patients and increasing awareness of private health insurance.
Improving geographic access to medical care will boost the industry as well, enabling more people to take advantage of the latest medical technologies and, subsequently, driving demand for certain products. The government can improve access fairly easily by enhancing the healthcare infrastructure in small cities and perhaps providing better transportation to those living in remote villages with unpaved roads.
The country also must better educate its residents about the types of available solutions to various diseases, Banerjee said. St. Jude Medical is helping the government with this effort, educating Indian doctors about the symptoms and potential treatment options for cardiac afflictions such as arrhythmia, heart failure, sudden cardiac arrest, heart valve repair and replacements.