Aerogen switches nebuliser plant from China to Galway

GALWAY drug delivery company Aerogen has decided to repatriate a nebuliser production line that it had outsourced to China since 2007.

Now bucking the ‘outsourced to China’ trend, Aerogen has decided to partner with Molex Corporation in Shannon. Molex will manage all aspects of manufacturing, including the design of the automation units. Aerogen will redesign the product to optimise it for automated production.

Aerogen founder and chief executive, John Power, explains: “Now that we’ve moved to automated production, we can manufacture these nebulisers more cheaply in Ireland. And we can take advantage of the excellent skills of Irish engineers in this area.

“A few years ago there was a drive in the US market to move to single-use products due to fears about passing on infections in hospitals. We couldn’t justify that production cost in Ireland.

“By outsourcing the production to the Far East, we were still able to hand assemble while keeping costs down. So, we were able to establish ourselves in the market. Now, with automation, we’re able to return to Galway.”

Founded in Galway in 1997, Aerogen’s Aeroneb nebulisers treat patients on life-support ventilation in over 50 countries. It is a global leader in acute care aerosol drug delivery equipment.

John Power describes his company’s move back home as a seal of approval for the Irish medical devices industry. Ireland exports €6.8 billion worth of medical devices annually, or 8% of Ireland’s total merchandise exports.

Power believes that Irish-based companies can offer huge advantages over foreign low cost labour assembly, citing world class skills and capabilities in Irish high end manufacturing, improved quality and reliability, reductions in supply chain management and faster production cycles.

“The greater protection of intellectual property also comes with home-based automation,” added Power.

“Of course China and the Far East will continue to play a role in almost every international equipment business, ours included, but I think the commonly held assumption that outsourcing manufacture to China as the only viable option to stay competitive is incorrect. Ireland can hold its own in this area.”