CLINTON TWP, Pa., Jan. 10 MEDRAD, INC., a worldwide
leading provider of medical devices and services that enable and enhance
imaging procedures of the human body, today celebrated the grand opening of a
new manufacturing facility that will produce disposable components for its
vascular injection systems. The 120,000-square-foot facility currently employs
70, with potential employment anticipated to reach hundreds of new jobs over
the next several years, making it one of the largest single sources of new
jobs in Butler County and one of the largest single sources of new
manufacturing jobs in Western Pennsylvania.
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040309/MEDRADLOGO )
The facility is located on the former site of a U.S. Steel sintering plant
in Victory Road Business Park in Clinton Township, Butler County. It is 30
miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh and about 14 miles from MEDRAD's original
sterile disposables operation on Route 910 in Indianola, Pa., which will
remain in operation.
"The Saxonburg facility went from groundbreaking to start-up in just 10
months, and is critical to meeting the demand for imaging procedures that
enable earlier, more accurate diagnosis and improved treatment," said
President and CEO John P. Friel. "It provides us with needed additional plant
capacity in the short term, and its phased growth design gives us the capacity
to add production lines in the future."
The building is also designed to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and
Environmental Design) certified. LEED certification requires that a building
meet stringent measures and tests of its energy efficiency and environmentally
friendly construction through use of natural lighting, biodegradable materials
and construction practices that reduce human impact on the site.
At the heart of the new facility is an extensive clean room environment in
which workers manufacture disposable components used to inject contrast dyes
during medical imaging procedures. MEDRAD's disposable products consist
primarily of high-pressure, large-volume syringes and injection systems,
including specialty tubing, used to inject contrast agents as part of computed
tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) and angiography medical imaging
scans. Such scans can improve patient care by detecting disease in its early
stages, tracking existing disease progression and enabling alternatives to
surgery.
MEDRAD began a worldwide review in June 2005 to identify a site for the
new facility. The Clinton Township site emerged as the best choice for several
reasons: close proximity to other MEDRAD locations, which will help it
preserve and leverage the MEDRAD culture; close proximity to a majority of
MEDRAD's customer and supplier base; a 20-acre site that has room for possible
future growth; and it could be prepared quickly, meeting the timetable for
expected customer demand. The Victory Road Business Park is also part of a
Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ), which the commonwealth has developed to
encourage businesses to invest in Pennsylvania.
This is the second major MEDRAD facility to open in the last year. MEDRAD
celebrated the grand opening of its 125,000-square-foot Global Center in June
2007. The Global Center, in the TECH 21 Research Park in Warrendale, Pa.,
Allegheny County, houses more than 260 employees in Corporate Services,
Corporate Compliance, Sales/Customer Support and Corporate Operations.
In addition to the new disposables plant and its Global Center, MEDRAD
operates two other local facilities. Its Indianola facility, on Rt. 910 in
Indiana Township, Allegheny County, houses MEDRAD's Computed Tomography (CT),
Cardiovascular (CV) and Magnetic Resonance (MR) Strategic Business Units, as
well as its Innovations group and the original sterile disposables
manufacturing operation. The company's Heilman Center, in RIDC Park, O'Hara
Township, Allegheny County, houses its electromechanical man
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