Association of British Healthcare Industries Sees Importance of Medical Plastics in UK Medtech Sector

The Association of British Healthcare Industries (ABHI) has recognised the importance of medical plastics to the UK’s medical device manufacturing industry by becoming a partner of Mediplas, a specialist trade show in the field of medical plastics manufacturing to be held on September 25-26, 2013, in Birmingham, UK.

Commenting on the partnership, the communications director of ABHI, Dan Jones, said: “Approximately 40% of the £16 bn worth of medical devices sold in the UK are manufactured on UK soil, and plastics is a hugely important material in this supply chain.”

The chairman of ABHI is Johnny Lundgren. Mr Lundgren is vice president for North West Europe at BD (Becton Dickinson), one of the largest users of medical plastics in the world. Mr Lundgren oversees a significant proportion of medical plastics production in the UK.

ABHI’s vice president, Shah Fayyaz, is the CEO of UK-based manufacturer of anaesthesia and surgical devices Timesco. Commenting on the importance of the UK’s medical plastics industry, Shah told [italics start] Medical Plastics News [italics end]: “Plastics are increasingly important for medical device manufacturers as those materials continue to replace metal in many areas of device design. Timesco works with a number of specialist UK medical plastics companies, particularly in terms of design, mouldflow analysis and materials selection.”

Sam Anson, managing editor of Medical Plastics News, the main supporting media partner for the Mediplas trade show, said: “Medical Plastics News is pleased to see ABHI’s support of Mediplas—it is an important milestone for the medical plastics sector in the UK. Mediplas is the only major international meeting dedicated to medical plastics in Europe. This is in contrast with the USA, where there are a handful of well-established medical plastics conferences held throughout the country each year.”

He added: “Medical plastics is a fast growing niche. In October 2012, despite a gloomy economic outlook, US business consultants Frost & Sullivan forecast that sales of medical plastics in the USA will grow by 5.2% a year to 2018.”