Editorial: Booming industry
A look at the news making headlines the last couple of weeks make evident that cleanrooms are needed, and in use, more than ever
Our industry is booming. Just look at the stories making headlines, both in print and online, to confirm this statement.
Three stories are particularly interesting as a testament of the dynamism in the market. Xellia Pharmaceuticals, a Danish company owned by Novo Holdings A/S, has reported double digit growth in its financial results for the year ending 31 December 2017. The company achieved US$317.1 million revenue in this period and reported progress on the development of its pipeline of value-added anti-infectives.
Terumo Corporation, the Japanese giant in the global medicine device manufacturing, has announced a capital investment of £33 million to scale up existing facilities at Vascutek, its Scottish subsidiary, including two new cleanrooms to be used in the manufacture of polyester grafts and Thoraflex Hybrid products.
In the US, Grand River Aseptic Manufacturing, a sterile product contract manufacturer, has signed purchase agreements to acquire a 1.5-acre land to expand manufacturing capacity and meet the demands of a growing customer base.
These stories make evident that cleanrooms are needed, and in use, more than ever. Companies might well be in need of the skilled staff to perform the manufacturing processes in these climate-controlled environments. That’s where the idea to introduce Sector Focus, a new section featured in this edition, comes to mind.
Cleanroom Technology covers a wide range of high-tech industries manufacturing an even broader variety of products for specific markets and it seemed appropriate to take the time to put each aspect of these in the spotlight in a move to learn about existing expertise, technology deployed and solutions that, why not, could also be implemented in other manufacturing areas.
The inaugural sector focus on the April issue is about the programme at University of Southampton to boost silicon photonics fabrication. The article not only provides an insight into the variety of cleanroom tools required for manufacturing products in silicon photonics, but it reveals that companies and researches can benefit from the existing expertise and technology to develop innovations that, as one could expect, will continue to drive our industry forward.
Murielle Gonzalez
Editor
