|
A Few Thoughts on Medical Plastics
in the Time of COVID-19
COVID, COVID, COVID. As I sat down to write my
usual year-end review of plastics in the medical space, that’s what ran through
my mind. Of course, there was nothing remotely normal about 2020, thanks to a
once-in-a-century global pandemic. In keeping with a most unusual year, I
thought it appropriate to forgo the customary top 10 list and share some random
reflections inspired by the top medical stories of 2020 on the PlasticsToday
site.
Antimicrobials Are Ready for Prime Time
In September, business advisory firm Lux Research
published a report on antimicrobial coatings, positing that the technology
experienced a reversal of fortune since the pandemic hit the planet. “These
coatings previously struggled to find widespread adoption due to difficulties in
quantifying their impact on human health, but the pandemic has drawn attention
to them as an important safety measure,” wrote Lux Research in its report.
On the heels of that report, PlasticsToday
published a slide show highlighting antimicrobial technologies involving
polymers. The Biaxam block copolymer, developed by Kraton was among the featured
products. It is currently awaiting regulatory approval in the United States and
other markets.
Biaxim reportedly quickly inactivates up to 99.99%
of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19, and other microbes, according to
the company. It could be used as a coating on personal protective equipment as
well as a host of high-contact surfaces in everyday products.
Is COVID a catalyst for reshoring?
The shortage of personal protective equipment and
medical devices needed to diagnose and treat COVID-19 related conditions in the
early days of the pandemic brought into stark relief the dependence of US
companies on off-shore suppliers and the inadequacies of a just-in-time
manufacturing ethos. Companies began looking not just at the cost of goods, said
Rosemary Coates of the Reshoring Institute, but also at what happens if the
supply chain shuts down. “We’re now seeing a hefty increase in reshoring,”
Coates told PlasticsToday in the early part of November. “We have several new
projects we are working on. A combination of cost and risk has led to companies
realizing it’s real.”
Is it though? While there has been incremental
evidence of companies reshoring some operations — or nearshoring them to Mexico,
for example — the overall picture is more complicated. Effectively responding to
a global pandemic requires global action. Autarky is a word you don’t hear much
any more, and for good reason. The rapid production of billions of single-use
syringes to deliver vaccines won’t be accomplished solely within our shores. And
let’s not forget that the Pfizer vaccine is actually a multinational achievement
— it should properly be called the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, and BioNTech is a
German company. Disentangling the global supply chain won’t happen overnight,
and the impulse to do so may well fade once business gets back to some kind of
normal.
“If the US government provides direct and proper
support and incentivizes domestic manufacturers [of PPE], I believe there will
be some reshoring of production,” Mark Bonifacio told PlasticsToday back in May.
Bonifacio heads a consultancy that works with medical device OEMs and their
suppliers. “There will be at least a short-term effort to address reshoring and
localization of supply chains. In medtech as in other industries, we have been
talking about this for at least the last four years. There is a need to
manufacture the right products in the ‘right’ places -
Asia for Asia, EU for EU, and North America for North America,” said Bonifacio.
“When global conditions return to some sense of normalcy, however, “market
forces will be back at work in terms of availability, labor, and material
costs,” he added.
The art of the pivot
Automakers in the United States and around the
world adopted a quasi war-like posture in the early days of the pandemic to
reconfigure production lines to produce medical equipment and PPE to mitigate
shortages. In March, Ford Motor Co. announced that it would collaborate with GE
Healthcare to produce a third-party ventilator at a plant in Michigan, and
Cadillac Products Automotive Co. stepped up to manufacture PPE for front-line
medical personnel. In Germany, Mercedes-Benz announced in April that it would
make its battery of 3D printers available for the production of medical devices.
“With our highly competent team and years of experience in 3D-printing
technology, we are ready to make our contribution to the production of medical
devices,” said Jörg Burzer, Member of the Board of Management of Mercedes-Benz
AG, Production and Supply Chain.
The spirit of solidarity extended well beyond the
automotive sector. Lego announced in April that it had begun making visors for
healthcare workers at its production plant in Billund, Denmark. Employees worked
around the clock to make it happen, from sourcing the materials to building the
molds, said the company.
Here in the United States, Nike collaborated with
Lubrizol to produce face shields and lenses for powering air-purifying
respirators, which were donated to hospitals.
The plastics industry at large also contributed in
countless ways, as demand for PPE, tubing for ventilators, Plexiglas shields,
and the like surged. Clare Goldsberry highlighted some of the initiatives in her
article, “Plastic Really Is Fantastic, and So Are the People Working in This
Industry.” The stories you’ve sent us about the resources you are devoting to
making PPEs and other plastic products for healthcare workers and patients are
“overwhelming,” wrote Goldsberry. “Unfortunately, we can’t report on each
initiative, but we do want to thank each and every one of you for your generous
efforts to aid this country,” she wrote back in April. We at PlasticsToday want
to reiterate that sentiment today, as we head into the most unsettling holiday
season of our lifetimes.
https://www.plasticstoday.com/medical/few-thoughts-medical-plastics-time-covid-19
Gujarat: Sans central aid,
medical device park to take shape
Gandhinagar: The government of Gujarat’s ambitious
proposed medical device park at Nagalpar, near chief minister Vijay Rupani’s
hometown Rajkot, may have hit a roadblock with the central government not
approving financial assistance for the project. However, if sources in the state
government are to be believed, the CM has directed officials to go ahead with
the project even without financial assistance from the Centre. The proposed
medical device park in Rajkot district is billed to rake in an investment of
100-150 million USD over three years.
A key source close to the development said,
“Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation (GIDC) has initiated the process of
setting up a medical device park at Nagalpar in Rajkot with the aim to promote
medical device manufacturing in the state. The park has been conceptualized as a
commercially and economically feasible venture. It will attract global players
to set up their plants which not only adds to development, but will also create
employment and investment opportunities.”
The proposed park is planned across 136 hectares of
land with the focus on development of sector specific infrastructure like
incubator, industry cluster and requisite research facilities. It is expected to
facilitate research and development, testing, manufacturing, training,
incubation in the medtech space for medical device companies.
A source in the government said, “if the state gets
selected by department of pharmaceuticals, government of India for establishing
the medical devices park under the scheme – “Promotion of Medical Device Parks”,
the state government will be eligible to receive 70% of the project cost in the
form of grant in-aid, up to a maximum limit of Rs. 100 Cr for creation of common
infrastructure facilities of the park, Government of Gujarat will contribute the
remaining project cost for the development of the park.”
The state government has notified the applicability
of capital subsidy and interest subsidy for MSME & large industries for a period
of 10 years. All incentives as part of the Gujarat Industrial Policy will be
applicable to the units setting up operations in the park.
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ahmedabad/gujarat-sans-central-aid-medical-device-park-to-take-shape/articleshow/79206815.cms
|
