Global laminated-tube maker Essel Propak Ltd. has made its second purchase this year of a U.S. medical manufacturer.
Reuters reported Sept. 5 that the Mumbai-based packaging giant has acquired 74 percent of specialty medical tubing maker Medical Engineering & Design Inc. of Plymouth, Minn. The acquiring firm is Essel subsidiary Tacpro Inc. of Campbell, Calif.
``This acquisition gives us access into a different genre of customers and also flexibility in terms of component-making,'' Essel President R. Chandrasekhar told Reuters. The acquisition will be funded partly through debt and partly through profit from Essel's medical businesses, Tacpro and Singapore-based Avalon Medical Services Pte. Ltd.
Essel and MED Inc. officials otherwise were unavailable for comment.
MED Inc. has experience designing and making catheters, custom extrusions and braid-reinforced tubing. According to the company's Web site, it processes materials including polyether block amides, nylon, polyurethane, polyethylene and polytetrafluoroethylene.
Essel estimates the global medical-device market to be worth $25.1 billion, with the share of the original equipment manufacturer segment at $2.4 billion.
The firm estimates medical-device sales have an 11.6 percent annual growth rate. According to the company, greater Minneapolis is the second-largest medical-device-producing area in the United States, behind California's Silicon Valley.
Tacpro in April paid $1.2 million for Catheter and Disposables Technology Inc., another Plymouth-based medical tubing manufacturer. Since the acquisition, CDT has received ISO-13485 certification for design control in catheters and transferred three product lines to Avalon, which Essel has positioned as its flagship for medical manufacturing.
Tacpro performs custom extrusion in a range of thermoplastics, including polyolefins, nylons, polyurethanes, thermoplastic elastomers and polycarbonate. Tacpro also produces medical balloons and catheters from nylons, PET and other materials.
Essel had 2007 sales of $295 million. It employs 2,700 in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe.