Editorial Content Producer Oli Johnson provides a round-up of some of the launches from this years MEDICA and COMPAMED shows in Düsseldorf.
What a way to immerse yourself in the medical device and medical manufacturing industry. I was only in attendance at MEDICA + COMPAMED from the Monday afternoon until the Wednesday afternoon, but I was able to take in so much during that whirlwind three days.
The size of the event exemplifies the sheer magnitude of our industry, with companies from all over the world coming together to showcase the latest innovations in medical technologies. I was able to speak to a few companies at both MEDICA and COMPAMED, and learn about some of the innovations that were launched.
Sustainable packaging company Coveris announced the launch of its new brand at COMPAMED 2024. It said that following extensive investments in its medical production facilities, it would consolidate its capabilities and medical offerings under one brand name, MediFlex. The company says that the establishment of the brand distinguishes its medical portfolio from other non-food applications, reflecting the heritage of its Rohrdorf and Halle sites as leaders in the medical packaging field. The company says that all medical packaging is produced using renewable electricity, embodying its commitment to its ‘No Waste’ principles.
Jan-Willem Bruijsten, Segment Director Medical, Coveris told MTI: “MediFlex is not new, it is the Coveris healthcare division, which has been around for 45 years, so it’s an established product line. Now with the MediFlex brand, we gave it a new name, but it’s the same people, same product.”
UK biomaterial company BioInteractions announced the launch of its new surface active therapeutic coating for medical devices, AstutePlus. The new development is based off of the company’s Astute technology, which it says is the strongest antithrombogenic coating, highest efficacy, and most effective antithrombogenic coating in the world. The efficacy of the coating can be sustained for decades at a time, with the most recent results showing that the efficacy can be maintained for over 30 years, meaning that implants can be placed for the lifetime of a patient.
With AstutePlus, fibrin sheath can be completely prevented from forming. With CVC catheters, there is around a 70% failure rate because of fibrin sheath alone. AstutePlus offers the ability to prevent clots, deactivate the blood, prevent a fibrin sheath from forming, ensure that nothing grows on the outside of the device, and ensure that the efficacy is maintained for as long as is needed.
Arjun Luthra, Commercial Director of BioInteractions said: “If we need to put an implant into a patient for years or decades at a time, we are comfortable to do it because of the AstutePlus solution.”
Leading up to MEDICA 2024, adhesives giant Henkel announced a partnership alongside polymer specialist Covestro and flexible printed electronics manufacturer Quad Industries. The companies aim to accelerate customer developments for advanced medical wearables and to drive the adoption of innovative printed electronics solutions, especially for stretchable materials in healthcare applications. At the show, the company was presenting a range of products including printed sensors for diagnostics and hygiene, medical wearables, medical heaters and antennas for medical wearables at the Wearable Technologies pavilion. The partnership was highlighted by the presentation of a patch demonstrator, an ECG pad for continuous patient monitoring of heart activities.
Pia Schmiedel, Business Development Manager – Printed Electronics, Henkel talked MTI through some of the medical patches that have been created through the collaboration: “We at Henkel are the material supplier for these types of medical patches, we are supplying skin adhesives and the conductive inks, so all the printed electronics which go into it, which could be silver chloride inks, silver inks and dielectrics, which are printed in a screen printing process.”
Syensqo made its COMPAMED debut at the 2024 show, showcasing its range of high-performance polymers for the healthcare and pharmaceuticals industry. The company is known for its Zeniva PEEK material, and was presenting a new application featuring the material at the show from its partner GLW Medical Innovation. At the booth, visitors were able to get a close look at implantable fracture plates that were 3D printed in titanium, then reinforced with Zeniva PEEK.
Federico Baruffi, Global Marketing Manager at Syensqo said: “This is an exceptional application because you combine the properties of metal and the properties of plastics. Our material here brings lightweighting, and also the possibility to increase the radiolucency, it is possible to see through this sample in an MRI for example. What we bring is exceptional biocompatibility, but more specifically also the strength. So the material being reinforced with carbon fibre and implantable, we can make sure that it is stiff enough to fixate the bone without risk of breakage.”
Teknor Apex, provider of custom plastic compounds for the healthcare industry, announced the expansion of its medical-grade thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) portfolio, with new grades specifically designed for biopharmaceutical tubing applications. The expansion was announced prior to COMPAMED, with the materials on display at the show.
The company says that the new materials, the MD-90000 Series, from the Medalist line of materials, are tailored to address unique challenges associated with the continuous processing of biopharmaceuticals through roller pumps. Derek Laffey, Global Market Manager – Medical told MTI: “They offer a lot of very diverse qualities and application opportunities. In biopharma tubing we specifically chose to develop a new series aimed at solving several problems encountered in the biopharmaceutical tubing space, one of which is spallation, meaning as a roller pump wears down a tube, tiny particles of the tube can come off and cause contamination and ultimately tube failure, as the tube gets so thin that it no longer functions, and it breaks.”
The company developed the new line using new SEBS rubber technology that it says is ‘first to market’ and greatly improves spallation performance, reduces spallation as it occurs in other TPE materials. Laffey added: “These are leading-edge, next-generation TPE materials for biopharmaceutical transfer tubing and pump segment tubing. The additional benefit is that the material offers exceptional clarity, not only can you greatly reduce the occurrence of spallation, but you can also greatly improve the clarity of the tube, so you can see what’s happening inside the tube as the fluid is transferring. We think that this is an evolutionary step in TPE materials used in pump segment and fluid transfer for biopharmaceutical manufacturing.”
Staiger, a German company developing and producing customer-specific solenoid valves and fluidic manifolds at its plant in Erligheim, showcased its latest production innovations, the ‘world’s smallest’ electronic pressure regulator with integrated solenoid valves, ‘the first’ proportional solenoid valve with a metal membrane, and a media-isolated microvalve with a 5mm outer diameter. Andreas Genesius, Managing Director & CTO at Staiger told MTI: “This year at COMPAMED we launched our brand-new 5mm media-separated valve, which is the perfect valve for dispensing for any IVD application. We can go down to droplets that are 30-40 nanolitres, but we can also dispense micro and millilitres with that valve.”
At COMPAMED 2024, polymer specialist Trelleborg showcased its entire line of manufacturing capabilities, which can all be customised as per customer requests. At the show, MTI spoke to Trelleborg about its global network, which allows it to serve customers around the world.
Florance Veronelli, Sales Manager, LifeScience Solutions at Trelleborg told MTI: “We have large facilities in China and Australia, and also an expanding footprint in Europe, as well as experts all over the world in engineering to make sure that we have the right design for manufacturability to find an efficient process and everything under the roof of one quality management system. With that, we can really make sure that the customer receives the same quality that they require everywhere in the world.”
Linda Muroski, Business President for Trelleborg Medical Solutions also spoke about the importance of the global network that the company has: “I think from our customer perspective, our customers are really looking to make sure that they have in country for country or in region for region, after COVID, and the supply chain constraints everyone had, this (the global network) has been very important to them. Sometimes you’ll hear a customer say they want a dual source, because they don’t want to have all their products produced in your factory in whatever city. So what we’re able to do is to create a second source in a different region completely, so there’s this big separation for them. I think that oftentimes allows us to be the single source for the customer, but doing it in multiple regions, so they have that supply chain continuity.”
Accunea Ltd., a spin-out from Imperial College London, presented its new multi-function biosensor at COMPAMED. The company is aiming to halve the 1-in-5 donated kidneys that go unused because of a lack of objective viability assessment technologies.
“Few people realise that Chronic Kidney Disease kills more people than cancer” Dr. Robert Learney, CEO of Accunea told MTI. “This is a silent global pandemic where nearly 3 million people at the end stage can only survive on dialysis, which is a miserable experience and very carbon intensive. While around 100,000 each year are fortunate enough to be cured by transplantation, thousands more kidneys go unused because there is no way to predict if they are likely to work if transplanted. Our breakthrough RenoSure system will change this.”
Accunea Ltd. have collaborated over the past year with a selected group of experts in biosensing and microfluidics, coordinated by the EU Microfluidics Hub. “Working alongside best-in-class companies across Europe including BiFlow Systems, Jobst Technologies, Micronit and Joanneum Research has really unlocked our ability to deliver actionable insights at the point of care for transplant surgery,” Learney added.
Accunea is currently fundraising to assess RenoSure in a human study at one of Europe’s busiest transplant units. They are supported by leading surgeons at the UK’s largest transplant centres, and a growing number across Europe, who see RenoSure’s potential to improve clinical decision-making and increase transplant numbers.
Learney said: “The first version of our sensor showed excellent results in a small human study, but we identified a number of technical challenges which our partners have since managed to solve. By showcasing this device at COMPAMED, we aim to inspire potential partners and investors to come and open new conversations around transforming pre-transplantation organ assessment and organ availability.”
