Originally Published MPMN March 2003

INDUSTRY NEWS

IBA Rebrands Medical Sterilization Business

Norbert Sparrow

A little more than four years ago, IBA (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium; www.iba-worldwide.com) rocked the sterilization world by going on a buying spree. Between the end of 1998 and the summer of 1999, IBA acquired Scanditronix, Wellhöfer, Radiation Dynamics, Griffith Micro Science, and SteriGenics International. Almost overnight, the firm transformed itself from an acknowledged expert in particle accelerator technology to a world leader in gamma, EtO, and E-beam medical sterilization. Now, IBA is undergoing another transformation, as it changes the name of its medical sterilization business to Sterigenics.

A need for clarity made the name change necessary, says senior director of business development and marketing Brett Barthel. "Each of our business units is called IBA, and we cover a lot of ground, from sterilization to brachytherapy to dosimetry," says Barthel. "To streamline our communication with the outside world, it became clear that we had to associate our various offerings with an appropriate business unit."

Barthel stresses that IBA is not turning back the clock by restoring the Sterigenics name. "This is a complete rebranding process, including a new logo and color scheme, for our gamma, EtO, and E-beam sterilization business." The company officially reintroduced itself to industry as Sterigenics, a member of the IBA Group, at the recent MD&M West show in Anaheim, CA. It will do the honors for European industry at MEDTEC in Stuttgart, Germany, in March.

In other news, the firm has announced that it will open a new state-of-the-art EtO facility in Dallas as well as an E-beam plant in Denmark this summer. The fully automated 10-MeV E-beam plant in Espergaerde, Denmark, has been designed to deliver a wide range of radiation doses via single-, double-, or four-sided passes. It can accommodate small or large batches, and a microbiological laboratory will be located on-site.

Sterigenics also intends to continue upgrading its EtO sterilization facilities with CyclEOne technology. (The new Dallas plant will hit the ground running fully equipped with CyclEOne and parametric release capabilities.)

CyclEOne can dramatically reduce EtO sterilization and processing times, says Barthel. By using high-performance vacuum systems to evacuate gases from the chamber, Sterigenics is able to perform all of the sterilization and processing in a single chamber in one day.

Acknowledging that the benefit of a fast turnaround may be moot if the customer then has to wait several days for biological indicator results, Barthel adds that parametric release will be made available in the facilities, as well. To support parametric release, the company has even developed a microwave spectrometer that integrates a proprietary technology. "Our goal is to provide medical device manufacturers with the ability to have their products processed in one day using any of our gamma, EtO, or E-beam sterilization technologies," says Barthel.

Copyright ©2003 Medical Product Manufacturing News