Scandinavian Healthcare (SHL) plans new Plant in Taiwan

The SHL Group, the world`s largest privately-owned designer, developer and manufacturer of advanced drug delivery devices, recently confirmed its plan to invest to build a new manufacturing plant in Taiwan’s Taoyuan County by the end of the year. SHL Group’s newest plant would be twice as large as the company’s existing facility in Taiwan.

Roger Samuelsson, chairman of SHL, said that the new factory will help to turn the island into the world`s largest production base of pen-injectors, with the facility expected to create more than 2,000 jobs. In addition, he added that all its pen-injector production lines are flooded with orders, and its production capacity is expected to reach 120 million units in 2009, turning the company the world`s largest supplier of such product by 2010.

About 70% of SHL Group’s revenue now comes from pen injectors, though the group has diversified into medical-bed and metal-processing medical materials. Industry analysts estimated that the company’s revenue would exceed NT$10 billion (US$303.03 million) in two years.

Dr Reddy’s Launches Inhalers for Asthma Patients in India

One of India’s foremost pharmaceutical manufacturer, Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which is listed in NYSE, has launched the Combihale™ and Redihaler™ product lines in India, marking its entry into the inhaler market for asthma patients. The Combihale™ is a combination of a steroid and a long acting bronchodilator and would initially be available in two combinations, the Combihale™ FF (Formoterol + Fluticasone) and Combihale™ FB (Formoterol + Budesonide). 

Picture of Combihale™ from Dr Reddy’s website.

In addition, the Combihale™ would be supplied in a package with the Redihaler™, a dry powder inhalation device that was designed in-house by the company. This is expected to be the promotional offer as the Combihale™ range of drugs could be dispensed under the option of dry powder (DPI) or metered dose inhaler (MDI) format. According to the press release by the company, the inhaler market in India is valued at Rs 473 Crores (4.73 billion Rupees or approx US$100 million) and forecasted to grow at a rate of 17% annually. Given the increasing number of patients and the burgeoning middle class in India, the entry into the consumer market is a good time for the company.

WooYoung Medical expands its Accufuser Series of Infusion Devices

In a press release by WooYoung Medical, 2 new models of its Accufuser line of products, the Accufuser ABx and Accufuser CTx, will be launched in September 2008. These 2 new products are especially useful for infusion of antibiotics at fast flow rates and anticancer agents at slow flow rates, respectively. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pictures from WooYoung Medical

In the case of antibiotics infusion, intermittent dosing of antibiotics has been the most common method, but continuous infusion of antibiotics have been gaining increasing acceptance as the standard protocol. According to studies, adopting such practices will offer distinct cost saving benefits for medical facilities while simultaneously improving patient outcomes.