Ortho Clinical Diagnostics

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics (OCD) relocated from the centre of Cardiff to a purpose built factory in Pencoed in the Wales Convergence area, which comprises West Wales and the Valleys, in October 2010.

OCD was one of the first companies ASTUTE Cardiff collaborated with. Initially developing a collaborative scoping study, an evaluation of the technical viability of a proposed process to modify the surface characteristics of their immunoassay wells prior to coating was undertaken.

After successfully demonstrating that the technology could provide the required modification, a longer term joint study was undertaken to show it could be effective for Ortho Clinical Diagnostics’s full range of immunoassay products under the full range of expected processing conditions.

Challenges

Both projects have achieved the intended outputs, but the nature of the medical device industry results in long lead times to introduce and validate any new product or process and this validation process is currently ongoing both for the production process enhancements and the shortlisted suppliers.

Impact

Ortho Clinical Diagnostics has openly identified that their association with ASTUTE and other academic and Welsh Government initiatives has had a measurable impact on their ability to be successful in securing continued investment in facilities, staff and processes. During this period, for example, new skilled posts have been been created and apprenticeships initiated for the first time.

OCD are poised for further investment in production capacity and product support expertise to enable the introduction of a new product line in 2014, which will create 24 new positions most of which will be for highly skilled personnel.

The micro/nano technical assistance obtained [from the ASTUTE team] was not available in house at Ortho Clinical Diagnostic’s South Wales facility. Centralisation of high-tech capabilities in a corporate structure can sometimes result in inertia unintentionally limiting the agility of the business. The accessibility of the technical expertise through ASTUTE meant that local decisions could be made regarding deployment of resources onto potentially game changing manufacturing opportunities.