Earthquakes Rattle Italy's Medical Device Industry

As reported on www.medtechinsider.com, the northern Italian region of Emilia Romagna, the heart of Italy's manufacturing industry, has been rattled bei several strong earthquakes in recent weeks. When the first 6.0-magnitude quake hit the region between Modena and Ferrara on 20 May, seven people reportedly died, many buildings and historic structures were either destroyed or heavily damaged and thousands were left homeless. After hundreds of aftershocks a second strong earthquake, measuring 5.8 on the Richter scale, shook the region on 29 May and another one on Sunday. This ongoing series of heavy earthquakes has a dramatic impact on the area's medical device industry as the region between the cities of Modena and Mirandola is home to over 100 medical device manufacturers. "The companies cannot operate for safety reasons," says Paolo Galavotti, General Manager Nexion srl, who lives near the epicenter in heavily affected Mirandola. Nexion assists in the design and development of medical device samples and prototypes. Galavotti's office and laboratory were damaged in the first earthquake on Sunday 20 May and the warehouse collapsed. "This is all a real disaster for the biomedical sector of the Mirandola area," he stresses.

Galavotti says that 3500 people working in the medical business have been forced to stay home until the manufacturing plants will reopen again and some of the plants have collapsed completely. About 70 to 80% of manufacturing plants are currently being kept in a standby modus for safety reasons. Galavotti adds that firemen, who are currently inspecting the damage, are expected to announce this week that some companies can resume their activities if the buildings are safe. "But nobody knows how many of them are able to continue as before," he states. He adds that while the first earthquake, which struck on a Sunday morning, caused major damage, there weren't as many casualties as during the second quake, which hit on a Tuesday at around 9 AM during a normal working day when employees and owners were inside the buildings to restart activities after the first quake.

––Yvonne Klöpping