Sterigenics has announced that it is building a new facility in Markham Vale North in Chesterfield/Derbyshire, UK.

The facility will significantly expand Sterigenics’ footprint in Europe to help meet the growing sterilization needs of its customers and support the company’s mission of Safeguarding Global Health™.

Scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of 2018, the facility will include the installation of a state-of-the-art Nordion JS10000 gamma irradiator with a research loop. The new 60,000ft2 facility will add gamma sterilization capabilities in the UK to complement Sterigenics’ existing ethylene oxide (EtO) facility based in Somercotes / Derbyshire.

President of Sterigenics Philip Macnabb said: “Sterigenics is committed to being the world’s leading provider of sterilization services and partnering with our customers to eliminate threats to human health.

“We continue to invest in our global network to meet our customers’ growing demand for gamma irradiation capacity as a critical step in their product development processes. Our new Markham Vale facility will strengthen our ability to serve our European customers, particularly in the MedTech and pharmaceutical fields, and help them innovate with success.”

The new facility will provide routine gamma, GammaStat® rapid processing and process validation, as well as laboratory testing services in nearby Somercotes through its Nelson Labs business. The facility will expand Sterigenics’ total gamma irradiation capacity in Europe, adding to existing gamma facilities located in Belgium and Italy.

Director of UK Operations Adrian Wye said: “Our Markham Vale North facility is strategically located to serve the needs of our European customers.

“Its prime location at the heart of the UK’s motorway network will provide an optimum location for their supply chain logistics. And our facility’s high-tech capabilities will deliver the turnaround times necessary to distribute their products to market quickly.”

To address the growing need for sterilization in many parts of the world, Sterigenics is making significant investments in technology to expand both gamma and ethylene oxide (EtO) sterilization capacity throughout its global network.

In August 2017, it completed a major expansion of its Forth Worth facility, adding gamma capacity and increasing total sterilization throughput. In June 2017, it completed a project that significantly increased throughput at its operation in West Memphis, Arkansas, and in 2015, it opened a significant expansion in Gurnee, Illinois.

In addition, Sterigenics has recently expanded its EtO facilities in Ontario, California; Costa Rica; and Wiesbaden, Germany. Further announcements are expected in the near future.

About Sotera Health

Sotera Health is one of the world’s leading, fully integrated protector of global health.

With more than 500 years of combined scientific expertise, the company ensures the safety of healthcare by providing mission-critical services to the medical device, pharmaceutical, tissue and food industries. Sotera Health operates 61 facilities in 13 countries.

The company has more than 2,600 employees globally and touches the lives of more than 180 million people around the world each year. Sotera Health serves more than 5,000 customers worldwide, including 75 of the top 100 medical device manufacturers.

Sotera Health goes to market through its three best-in-class companies: Nelson Labs™, Nordion® and Sterigenics®. It has a mission of ensuring the safety of healthcare each and every day.

Nelson Labs offers microbiological and analytical testing, as well as expert advisory services to assist customers in developing and maintaining sterilization solutions in medical devices, tissue/implantable products and the pharmaceutical and biologics fields.

Nordion is one of the world’s largest providers of Cobalt-60, which is used in the gamma sterilization process. Sterigenics provides comprehensive contract sterilization and ionization solutions for the medical device, pharmaceutical, food safety and high-performance materials industries.

Sotera Health is owned by private equity firms Warburg Pincus and GTCR.