Medical injection molder Phillips-Medisize Corp. opened a new design and development center in China this week, rapidly expanding the company's Asia presence and its ability to serve China's growing drug delivery device market.
The new facility — which houses capabilities for device design, injection molding simulation, developmental tooling and assembly equipment and on-site program management—is a major component in the company's China-for-China strategy that has been building over the last three years. Phillips-Medisize's China presence kicked off in July 2013, when the company acquired the Suzhou, China manufacturing operations from Swiss-based Adval Tech Group after a lengthy search for a Chinese partner.
“This is a very exciting time for our customers and our company,” said Matt Jennings, chairman and CEO of Phillips-Medisize, in a news release. “The new Suzhou design and development center, as part of our network, will support our customers' need for outsourced design and develop of new market appropriate products for the Asian market.”
The Suzhou design and development center joins the network of three other such Phillips-Medisize facilities in North American and Europe, where a network of more than 200 engineers helped launch 81 new products last year, according to the company.
Acquired by private equity firm Golden Gate Capital from Kohlberg & Co. LLC one year ago, Hudson, Wis.-based Phillips-Medisize in 17th in Plastics News injection molders rankings, with about $330 million in North American sales. According to the company, about 75 percent of its business is in health-care applications such as medical devices, pharmaceutical packaging, drug delivery, glucose meters, drug inhalation devices, and disposable surgical devices and diagnostic components.