Medical Device Link.

NEWS

Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging (Montreal, QC, Canada) is selling its Wheaton Science Products (Millville, NJ) business to River Associates Investments LLC (Chattanooga, TN), a private equity group. The Wheaton sale includes three facilities in Millville that specialize in the production and distribution of apparatuses and equipment for scientific laboratories. As part of the transaction, Alcan has entered into a long-term, exclusive agreement to continue supplying Wheaton with pharmaceutical-grade glass tubing, vials, ampules, and plastic containers and closures. According to Alcan Global Pharmaceutical Packaging president Michael Rubenstein, the sale comes as the company is focusing its resources on its pharmaceutical and medical packaging portfolios.

Bilcare Ltd. (Rajgurunagar, India), a subsidiary of Bilcare Inc. (Phoenixville, PA) that provides clinical trial services and packaging design research and development, has acquired DHP Ltd. (Powys, UK). DHP manufactures, imports, and distributes phase I–IV investigational medicinal products and also provides clinical trial services. The goal of the acquisition is to enable Bilcare Ltd. to provide quality support to clinical suppliers in the United Kingdom and to enable DHP to do the same in the United States and India. Through the acquisition, DHP will be able to add a range of interactive voice response system and analytical capabilities to its clinical supply chain.

The Klöckner Pentaplast Group (Gordonsville, VA) is expanding its production capacity in Latin America. The company is investing in a coating and laminating line designed for producing Pentaform alfoil PVdC-coated and Pentapharm Aclar-laminated packaging films to service the Latin American pharmaceutical industry. The line will be located at the company’s manufacturing facility in Cotia, Brazil. The films were previously imported from the company’s North American production facilities.

TCP Reliable Inc. (Edison, NJ) has acquired Cryopak Industries (Vancouver, BC, Canada). The additional assets of Cryopak will expand TCP’s established line of temperature-controlled packaging. The companies will continue to serve both the U.S. and Canadian markets.

A supplier of machine vision systems, Cognex Corp. (Natick, MA), offers a program for beginning and advanced vision specialists. The Cognex University program consists of seminars structured to illustrate the benefits of machine vision in package inspection and part traceability and workshops at local distributors. The company also offers in-depth product training at its centers in Atlanta and Detroit.

Perfecseal (Oshkosh, WI), a division of the Bemis Co. (Neenah, WI), is substantially expanding its facilities in New London, WI; Derry, Northern Ireland; and Selangor, Malaysia. The expansion in New London will more than double the size of the existing facility, which was built in 2003, to allow room for a foil laminator for high-barrier medical and pharmaceutical packaging. The laminator will be contained within a controlled-atmosphere cleanroom environment. The facility in Derry will be expanded to support lean manufacturing and new capabilities. It will include a cleanroom environment to deliver a broader range of packaging products and services to the European markets. The Selangor facility will be increasing its printing and laminating capabilities.

A provider of value-added films and packaging solutions, Pliant Corp. (Chicago), has formed an alliance with NovaCentrix (Austin, TX), a nanotechnology and printable electronics manufacturer, to create and commercialize technology solutions for performance packaging needs. The alliance was forged to engage the two companies at the product development level. The companies plan to combine NovaCentrix’s nanoparticle-based inks and coatings with Pliant’s high-performance films to accelerate the availability of commercially viable solutions that use nanotechnology.

Envirotainer AG (Zurich, Switzerland), a manufacturer of cold-chain containers and management solutions, has appointed Peltransport (Tel Aviv, Israel) as its general sales agent to Israel’s growing biotech and healthcare industries. The agreement will provide customers in Israel with access to dry-ice containers and Envirotainer’s RKN e1, an electrical heating and compressor cooling system.

A labeling and autoidentification specialist, PRISYMID Inc. (Charlotte, NC) is partnering with automation and control solutions provider Honeywell (Morristown, NJ) to combine compliance- labeling capabilities within product management software for life sciences manufacturers. Under the agreement, PRISYM Medica software will now be offered as a module or upgrade to the Honeywell POMSnet manufacturing execution system (MES) for clinical supplies manufacturing.