Drug Pack Leak Test Firm Sepha Bought By Tasi
The deal – financial terms of which were not disclosed – will see East Belfast, Northern Ireland-headquartered Sepha join Cincinnati, US-based Tasi’s network of manufacturing and services facilities
TASI CEO David Huberfield said: “Sepha joins Bonfiglioli Engineering; Air Logic Power Systems [Alps]; Cincinnati Test Systems; and ATC Automation, all leaders in their field, in providing a complementary range of integrated test systems, pack inspection and instrumentation to pharmaceutical and medical device customers."
Sepha CEO John Haran, added: "Sales of our pack inspection and deblistering machines have increased rapidly in recent years.
“Pharma companies are now very focused on the issues caused by poor packaging, namely increased costs and lower quality. We will be accelerating product development to maintain Sepha's lead in the inspection sector in response to market demand."
BRIC
Sepha's core business is its range of non-destructive leak testing and de-blistering equipment, which is used by drugmakers to assess the integrity of products on the packaging line.
Tasi identified North America, China and India as important markets for Sepha going forward, explaining that it will use its established sales presence to generate new business.
This strategy is understandable given that Sepha already has some presence in the BRIC markets.
In 2011 Sepha told in-Pharmatechnologist.com that while North America and Europe were still where the majority of its customers were based “we’ve also seen growth in the BRIC countries – Brazil, Russia, India China.”
In China it said that business is primarily coming from multinational pharmaceutical companies investing in local manufacturing capacity.
“In Brazil it’s more of a mix with global multinationals like Novartis and local generic players like Eurofarma."
