Sharps Technology Inc., a publicly traded medical device company, has plans to acquire the first fully dedicated specialized polymer syringe manufacturing plant in North America, and has been announcing purchase orders for its products.
The Melville, N.Y.-based company in May announced an agreement to buy the InjectEZ specialty syringe manufacturing assets in West Columbia, S.C., from Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corp.
Sharps and Nephron have been working together on the InjectEZ project for several years, and on May 31 Sharps CEO Robert Hayes wrote a letter to shareholders announcing a "better deal" with the pharmaceutical company.
Sharps is paying $35 million for the InjectEZ assets, plus taking on related liabilities of up to $4 million. In exchange, Nephron agreed to a five-year purchase agreement for the prefilled copolymer syringes.
On June 13, Sharps announced that it had a $30 million purchase order for 12 months of syringes from Nephron. The purchase order is for both 10-milliliter and 50ml specialty copolymer prefillable syringes.
The order will be manufactured at the West Columbia site.
Sharps Technology officials say they are leading the industry in transitioning from standard glass and plastic syringes into the polymer prefilllable syringes.
"Sharps has developed an exciting alternative to glass syringes through the use of molded inert polymers, offering a high-quality solution compared to traditional glass syringe systems," said Braden Miller, director of product development at Sharps Technology.
The new syringes still carry similar characteristics as the glass and plastic syringes, with long-term drug stability and increase shelf life for pharmacy and health care industries. But the polymer syringes can have additional benefits, with custom configurations and unique container closure systems.
Sharps Technology claims the polymer syringes nearly eliminate breakage, minimize dead space, reduce contamination, excel in cold-chain storage and support development of novel devices.
The company is working towards becoming the first fully dedicated polymer prefillable syringe manufacturing plant in North America.
"Once the enhanced deal with Nephron was negotiated and signed, everything began moving at an accelerated pace," Hayes said in a news release. "Sharps is so pleased that Nephron has been willing to issue this purchase order now. It speaks to the collaborative relationship between our companies and the long partnership we want to have with Nephron."
The asset acquisition is expected to close at the end of July. Right after, Sharps Technology will immediately start the first phase of manufacturing and all planned upgrades need to accommodate the prefillable syringes.
Once the deal is closed, Sharps Technology will be on track to deliver products in the second quarter of 2025 and is expected to make over $35 million in revenue the first 12 months of sales.
The second and third phase of manufacturing will be implemented by October 2027.
Sharps also has syringe manufacturing operations in Italy and Hungary. On its website, the company lists capabilities including injection molding, compression molding and clean room assembly.