Industry News
Jabil Honored for Market Leadership
Business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan has bestowed upon Jabil Circuit the 2009 Award for Market Leadership in the global medical electronics manufacturing services (EMS) industry, citing the company’s 56 percent growth rate from 2003 to 2008.
The award lauded Jabil’s depth of knowledge and industry experience, financial strength, lean supply chain, and nine U.S. Food and Drug Administration-compliant facilities manufacturing Class II and Class III devices.
“The award is in recognition of Jabil’s effort at gaining market leadership position through consistent focus on enhancing customer service, comprehensive product and service portfolio, and sound business strategies,” said Lavanya Ram Mohan, senior research analyst at Frost & Sullivan. “In the current economic environment, OEMs are seeking EMS providers that they can rely upon to partner with them for the long haul. Jabil’s strong financial strength has been a key differentiator for its success.”
The St. Petersburg, Fla.-based firm reported fiscal 2009 net revenue of $11.7 billion, and core operating income of $246.8 million, or 2.1 percent of net revenue. Its core earnings totaled $132 million, or 63 cents per diluted share.
Frost & Sullivan’s evaluation process for the Market Leadership awards involves interviews with all market participants, customers and suppliers, as well as secondary and technology research. Criteria include market penetration, strategic innovation, technology innovation, revenue growth and brand recognition.
The award is presented to a company that has exhibited market share excellence through the implementation of market strategy. Recipients are acknowledged for displaying marketing skill in all areas of the market leadership process, including the identification of market challenges, drivers and restraints, as well as strategy development and methods of addressing these market dynamics.
Medisize Expands Capabilities at Ireland Facility
Finnish contract manufacturer Medisize has expanded its thermal welding capabilities at its manufacturing plant in Ireland.
Operational features of the new machines at its facility in Letterkenny County Donegal include film feeding, peel-seal and tube welding, outline welding and cutting, two station printing, and port feeding, as well as stations for out feed and waste removal.
The company’s plant in Ireland employs 170 people and is both ISO 13485- and ISO 14001-certified.
Incisiontech Now Operating in the Ocean State
Incisiontech has moved its production facility to Rhode Island. The new plant features a dedicated machining center with 11 Screw machines.
The state-of-the-art site, according to a news release about the move, houses the company’s needle technologies manufacturing staff of more than 110 employees. The new building doubles capacity and enables the firm to introduce rapid prototyping response service.
Machining capabilities at the new site include tolerances to 10 microns, modular tooling configurations, thread wherling, hob milling, helical and cylindrical turning, and live tooling. Various materials are used at the site, including brass, stainless steel, Titanium, PEEK (polyetheretherketone) and ceramics.
A division of Cadence Inc., Incisiontech is a device and component manufacturer with operations in Staunton, Va., and Cranston. The company generated $31.5 million in sales last year and $3.1 million in operating income, according to its latest earnings report. Net income totaled $1.5 million while net earnings per share came in at $1.13.
Emergo Group Expands, Inks Deal For UK Consulting Firm
The Emergo Group Inc. has had another growth spurt.
Less than a year after opening new offices in Paris, France; Mexico City, Mexico; and Minneapolis, Minn., the company announced the acquisition of Mediqol Ltd., a medical device consulting firm based in Sheffield, England. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Austin, Texas-based Emergo Group already operates European offices in Paris and the Netherlands. It also has facilities on four other continents, including Australia (Sydney); North America (Austin, Mexico City, Minneapolis and Vancouver, Canada); South America (Brasilia, Brazil); and Asia (Beijing, China and Tokyo, Japan).
Both Emergo and Mediqol help medical device manufacturers obtain regulatory clearance to sell products. Mediqol has changed its name to Emergo UK Ltd., and the company’s managing director, Colin Rylett, now serves as Emergo’s managing director in Europe.
Rylett said the acquisition would allow both companies to provide a wider array of consulting services to customers.
“Mediqol has a concentration of medical device clients in the UK who are eager to expand into international markets. We are pleased to have joined Emergo Group and look forward to providing a broader array of global consulting services to our combined client base,” he said.
Emergo executives said the acquisition is part of the company’s long-term strategy of becoming a “one-stop” resource for international regulatory compliance for medical device and IVD companies worldwide.
“The Mediqol consulting team is well respected in the United Kingdom with strong expertise in regulatory compliance for high-risk medical devices,” Emergo Group CEO Rene van de Zande noted. “Their service approach providing assistance throughout the entire life cycle of a medical device, from initial conception and product feasibility to clinical trials, regulatory approval and post-market surveillance, is very appealing to the clients we serve.”
Founded in 1997, Emergo Group employs about 50 workers. Last year, it reported between $7.5 million and $8 million in annual revenue.
BIT Group Building New Manufacturing Plant in China
BIT Group is headed to the other side of the world—literally—to save money and expedite its time-to-market process.
The global contract manufacturer of medical diagnostic instruments is building a new CNC manufacturing facility in KunShan, China, a city in the greater Suzhou region near Shanghai. The new facility, according to a news release issued by the company, will specialize in the production of selected machined components required for BIT instruments. In addition, the site will be linked electronically to an industrial engineering group in Germany.
BIT’s CEO said the new facility will help the company offer customers better prices and improve the quality of its products.
“The new production site provides advantages with regard to pricing and competitiveness,” Marius Balger said. “We are expanding our process-optimized real net output ratio and consolidating our own supplier platform. At the same time we expect even higher product quality as a result of the improved interface definition. Having China as a reference location will positively impact pricing in general—both internally and with the suppliers we have who are already based in China.”
BIT Group is a subsidiary of the Messer Group Inc., a company that has been manufacturing in China for 25 years. As such, BIT executives expect the firm to benefit from an already-established political, social and economic network.
“We are entering the market via safe, familiar terrain while maintaining 100 percent control of all business processes,” Balger noted. “We do not have any partners in management, and process monitoring will be performed at our head office in Germany. We make decisions on all operations independently of the China facility. This guarantees that all of our customers’ IPs as well as the entire know-how remains under our control.”
BIT Group has manufacturing operations in California, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Germany, and service facilities in California, Maryland, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Austria, France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Its research and development centers are located in California, Massachusetts and Germany.
PolyMedex Discovery Group Expands Product Offering for Minimally Invasive Devices
PolyMedex Discovery Group has announced the expansion of the NanoMed nanoparticle technology
to include thermoplastic elastomers (TPE) formulations for the minimally invasive market. The new formulations, according to PolyMedex, increase the stiffness of polymers while maintaining flexibility, which results in “increased push and torque performance” for catheter devices.
NanoMed compounds incorporate ultra-fine nanoparticles within the polymer matrix using dispersion technology to create oriented reinforcement at the molecular level. The nanoparticles interact directly with the polymer structure resulting in substantial improvement of certain material properties at low filler loadings. In Pebax PEBA block co-polymer formulations with 9 percent by weight nanoparticles, flexural modulus properties are doubled when compared to an unfilled polymer, the Putnam, Conn.-based company reported.
Nanoparticles used in NanoMed formulations have a thickness of less than one nanometer and widths in the range of five micrometers. Unlike traditional polymer reinforcing additives such as carbon or glass fibers—which are macro reinforcing agents of the plastic part—nanoparticles immobilize only select parts of the polymer structure. Flexibility is increased while preserving elasticity, impact resistance, downstream processability, and biocompatibility.
In vascular catheters, improved flexibility allows surgeons to better push and torque the device, the company said. Yet flexibility must be retained so the catheter can advance through a long and complex vascular path to the diseased area. Traditional unfilled polymers for these applications such as thermoplastic elastomers and urethanes, have good flexibility and sufficient stiffness for push and torque in larger diameter catheters with relatively thick walls. However, vascular catheter diameters are getting smaller in order to reach diseased areas further inside the body. The wall thickness is thinning out to allow for more working area within the catheter.
“Replacing these polymers with stiffer polymers often results in attrition of other properties such as flexibility,” said Byron Flagg, product manager at PolyMedex Discovery Group. “It also is very difficult for designers to validate new polymers for their devices.”
NanoMed formulations allow designers to utilize current polymers for their small diameter, thin wall catheter devices and increase push and torque properties while maintaining elasticity, impact resistance, processability, and biocompatibility.
ISO Certifications
• ABA-PGT Inc., a Manchester, Conn.-based manufacturer of plastic gearing and automated injection molding provider, has received ISO 13485:2003 certification. Terry R. Holmes, ABA-PGT’s vice president of sales and marketing, said the certification reinforces the company’s commitment to its medical device customers.
• Airtronics Metal Products Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based provider of sheet metal design engineering and fabrication services, has received ISO 13485:2003 certification. The company also upgraded its ISO 9001:2000 certification to the ISO 9001:2008 standard.
• ISO 9001: 2008 certification has been given to Health Robotics, a global supplier of life-critical I.V. robots. CEO Werner Rainer said the achievement ensures the company’s products meet and exceed customer expectations.
• KIKA Clinical Solutions, a provider of advanced electronic data capture solutions for clinical trials, has received ISO 9001:2008 certification for its operations in Boston, Mass., and Paris, France.
• ISO 13485:2003 certification has been granted to Micron Products Inc., a Fitchburg, Mass.-based manufacturer of silver plated and non-silver plated conductive resin sensors. The company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arrhythmia Research Technology Inc., also distributes metal snaps used in the manufacture of disposable ECG, EEG, EMS and TENS electrodes.
• More Diagnostics Inc., a Los Osos, Calif, based designer, manufacturer and distributor of liquid controls that check calibration used in clinical laboratory chemical analyzers, has received ISO 13485:2003 certification.
• Vision Technical Molding LLC, a Manchester, Conn.-based manufacturer of precision injected molding components, has received ISO 13485:2003 certification. Company president Steven Arnold said the firm achieved the certification to demonstrate its “strong and continuing commitment” to the device sector and its customers.
Biotech in Brief
The biomedical industry is one of the most recession-resilient sectors in California’s economy and is a critical driver of innovation, job growth and revenue that will help lead the state to economic recovery, a report released by the California Healthcare Institute and PricewaterhouseCoopers concluded. The report, however, said the Golden State’s biomedical industry is facing unprecedented challenges and its biomedical leadership is being tested as other regions compete for biomedical research and manufacturing jobs...Florida is finding itself in a similar position. A task force recently recommended that the state spend more money and change its tax, environmental and other laws to help grow, attract and retain biotechnology industries. The recommendations were part of a final report from the Task Force on the Study of Biotech Competitiveness. Florida Gov. Charlie Crist has said he supports expanding the industry in Florida…the Arizona BioIndustry Association launched a program called AZBioLink, a system that connects buyers and sellers of bio-related goods and services in the Grand Canyon State. “Obtaining goods and services locally is always preferable to long-distance relationships, and it may offer cost savings as well,” AZBio President Robert S. Green said…More than half of Rhode Island’s bioscience companies (56 percent) identified the lack of skilled workers as a top workforce challenge, according to a recent survey by the Tech Collective, an industry group. Some companies reported that it can take up to a year to hire senior-level workers...Contract manufacturer Vetter has dedicated a new 24,000-square-foot facility at the Illinois Science Technology Park in Skokie, Ill. Executives said the new facility is strategic to Vetter’s plan for worldwide growth.