New opportunities in medical and dental products motivated Polymics, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of highly specialized polymers, to spin off its biomedical division into the majority-owned Nittany Polymedics Inc. (NPI) seven months ago. According to Jeffery Sheldon, NPI chairman, president and CEO, the parent launched the startup with a plan to penetrate farther into the product lines of original equipment manufacturers of medical and dental devices. Current clients for the State College-based company’s line of highly regarded and very specialized polymer materials include Zimmer and Medtronic.
“We see an opportunity to extend our polymers into many more products and more widely into the biomedical sector,” Sheldon says. But that’s only half the plan. NPI is also hard at work on the development of its own proprietary products, which Sheldon did not wish to describe in detail at this point in their development.
However, in the overall picture for the two-person operation, backed by a strong list of existing customers and the parent’s manufacturing and research capacity, the outlook is expansive. The company plans to hire a total of six new staff with technical and research and development backgrounds for engineering and quality control in polymer manufacturing by the end of the current quarter. Then the size of the enterprise is set to double again to 16–“within 12 months thereafter,” Sheldon says.
A key aspect of this startup phase is also NPI’s installation of its own manufacturing facility. Sheldon sees opportunities to widen the application of polymer materials in many fields of medicine, with dentistry, urology, cardiology, and orthopedics at the top of his list. Joint replacement technologies offer one important example, where the pliable, durable polymers can enhance metal substrates and even replace them.
A company website is not yet launched. Those interested in more information can direct an email to Jeffrey Sheldon.
Source: Nittany Polymedics, Jeffery Sheldon
Writer: Joseph Plummer
