PITTSBURGH - Bayer MaterialScience LLC has recently made significant improvements to its Medical Coatings Development Centre in Sheffield, England, extending its capacity for feasibility studies and customer development support. The research and development facility is solely dedicated to the Baymedix™ C portfolio of coatings for medical devices.

Driven by new projects stemming from the recent U.S. and European launches of Baymedix™ C, the team has doubled in size in the past two months. “The larger team is helping us keep up with the influx of customer requests, but also enables us to expand our technology to new substrates and new application processes,” said Jeff Motley, R&D Manager for Bayer plc.

Equipment has been upgraded as well. A new dip-coating instrument allows the treatment of larger customer samples, up to 140 cm in length. This is especially useful for applying Baymedix™ CL lubricious coatings onto full-length cardiovascular catheters.

Another change is the addition of support for Baymedix™ CH hydrophilic polyurethane coatings at the center. “Before, we just sent samples and explained the coating process to customers,” said Paul Nowatzki, Business Development Manager, Bayer MaterialScience LLC. “Now we can use our own capabilities and know-how to help customers take the first step toward evaluation.”

One important addition to the team was hiring a full-time process engineer. This role is intended to assist in the scale-up of manufacturing processes using Baymedix™ coating products. The scale-up process is very important to customers and the implementation support is therefore a crucial element for success.