A Medical Device Daily

Medical imaging solutions provider Merge Healthcare (Milwaukee) reported an alliance with Shanghai Kingstar Winning Co., a healthcare IT company in China.

The Merge Healthcare China office (Merge China) will make available clinical imaging solutions and professional services to Kingstar Winning for use by more than 800 hospitals in its install base, as well as future Kingstar Winning customers.

"In today's fast-growing healthcare IT market in China, quality clinical solutions are critical to patient care," said Kai Sun, general manager of Kingstar Winning's Medical Imaging Software Division. "We are pleased to introduce Merge Healthcare's clinical applications into our solution. Merge Healthcare has a strong history in developing medical imaging software and technologies that offer flexibility and scalability. They will enhance our product lines and will, therefore, help our valued customers to obtain the right solutions at the right time."

The strategic partnership between Merge Healthcare and Kingstar Winning comes at a time when the Chinese government has announced a new healthcare reform plan, similar to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which allocates almost $20 billion for health IT. The plan outlines $125 billion in spending over the next three years, including a sizeable investment in rural health technology and infrastructure.

Together, Merge and Kingstar Winning will provide cost-effective, quality solutions into more rural areas, leading to better patient care for these communities and contributing to the success of the reform plan.

"Merge is honored that Kingstar Winning recognized the high quality of our technologies," said CEO Justin Dearborn, of Merge Healthcare. "I am confident our solutions will provide Kingstar Winning's large install base with excellent clinical solutions and services. In addition, we believe our advanced medical imaging technologies will enhance the opportunity for Kingstar Winning's national sales network to be even more successful in this fast-growing market."

Added capacity for molding

China Array Plastics (Pittsfield, Massachusetts), a full-service injection molder of high performance thermoplastics that has molding facilities in Wuhan, China, said it has added two new injection molding cells with clamp tonnage of 55 and 150 tons to mold medical-grade polymers, with a particular focus on polyetheretherketone (PEEK) and polyethersulfone (PESU).

Since beginning to mold medical and dental devices in 2008, the company said it has seen demand grow in the U.S., Europe and Asia. The addition of the two new cells will "dramatically increase" the company's capacity to meet this demand, it said.

China Array said its capability in processing high performance polymers lends itself well to the production of medical devices. "Medical products are typically subjected to severe environments of sterilization and disinfection, requiring the use of resins such as PEEK and polysulfones (PSU) that can withstand heat and chemicals. These materials mold at higher temperatures and pressures than engineering grades of resins, and often have unique molding characteristics, so control of the injection molding process is vital."

"Medical molding is a perfect fit for our company's molding strategy," states Carl Olson, China Array's vice president of sales and marketing. "It requires extensive upfront engineering and application development, which is a core competency of China Array, and each step of the process must be planned with the materials' unique molding characteristics in mind."

Indian venture for Novotech

Novotech, an Australia-based clinical research company, said it had entered into a strategic venture with ETI Klinical Pvt, part of the Karle Group of companies, a $600 million Indian multinational.

The joint venture designed to service the growing demand for global clinical research in the region will operate across India and offer full clinical and data management services.

Novotech CEO Alek Safarian said the joint venture will leverage the huge opportunities in the growing Indian clinical research sector and drive more global studies to the country.

The two companies have extensive experience managing FDA clinical research and will collaborate to service both regional and international pharma and biotech firms.

Karle Group CEO Mahendra Karle said that with the joint venture, clients could access the company's extensive reach across India, which includes memorandum of understanding with 92 prequalified sites with proven recruitment capability and compliance, providing access to more than 5 million patients and 13,000 beds.

Therapeutic areas include oncology, gastroenterology, urology, nephrology, ophthalmology, cardiology, diabetology, dermatology, orthopedics, postoperative pain, neurology, otorhinolaryngology, infectious diseases, respiratory diseases, endocrinology, psychiatry, geriatrics, hematology, metabolic disorders devices and vaccines.

Indian office for BioReliance

BioReliance (Rockville, Maryland) reported that it has established a liaison office in Bangalore, expanding its operations to address "significant growth opportunities"on the Indian subcontinent.

BioReliance said it recognizes that India has world-class biotechnology, pharmaceutical and vaccine companies and is demonstrating a commitment to support their growth. BioReliance is a leading contract services company that provides biologics safety testing, toxicology, viral manufacturing and laboratory animal diagnostic services to the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries worldwide.

"To date, we have successfully served the Indian biopharmaceutical marketplace through our UK offices," said Jarlath Keating, senior director of sales, North America & Asia Pacific. "However, at this time when the Indian biomanufacturing market is growing in experience and reach, it is clear that having a local presence will be the best manner in which to support our clients for the future. We look forward to working more closely with the businesses in this important region and assisting them in growing their global presence."

BioReliance has primary facilities in Rockville; Glasgow, Scotland; and Stirling, Scotland, an office in Tokyo, and employs more than 650 globally.