Helping to Save Lives with Innovative Medical Packaging

Hereford-based Dyecor Limited specialises in innovative packaging solutions designing a diverse range of absorbency, specialist paper conversions and sachet product manufacture.

In 2010 it was awarded The Queen’s Award for Enterprise: Innovation 2010 for its Absorbent Packaging, which is one of its extensive range of packaging solutions for the medical technologies and healthcare sectors.

Its latest development is based on an existing product, Thermacor – a patented, thermoformed package suitable for transporting liquid specimens – which has already proved highly successful for medical applications.

Feedback from laboratory and healthcare customers had indicated a real requirement for transporting items in a chilled and temperature-controlled condition, which seemed a logical extension for the Thermacor product. Dyecor identified a new product –Thermacool – as appropriate for transporting drugs, diagnostic samples and possibly blood products, more efficiently and cost-effectively than ever before.

Dyecor’s thermoforming capability meant it could mould a thermal reservoir – a close-fitting box around a sample – which was able to contain a refrigerant. What is typically used for insulation is expanded polystyrene, but Dyecor has specialist expertise relating to expanded polyurethane, which is ten times more effective as an insulator and much more robust.

Dyecor owner and managing director Rod Davidson explains “The real Holy Grail is that conventionally, when material is sent in a chilled container, dry ice is used. However, nobody likes it because it is very environmentally unfriendly. It has to be vented and it’s explosive and very expensive – in fact, because it’s hazardous, airlines charge a premium for carrying it

“We thought if we could produce a container that was robust, lower cost and also do away with the need for dry ice, but which still allowed the magical 72 hours of transport time, then we would have an unanswerable argument for using Thermacool.”

WHERE DID MEDILINKWM COME IN?

Having identified Thermacool as indeed appropriate for transporting drugs, diagnostic samples and possibly blood products, Dyecor applied to the Advantage Proof of Concept (APOC) fund in July 2009.  APOC was launched in 2008 by the University of Warwick with funding from Advantage West Midlands and ERDF.

MedilinkWM’s Connectivity Director Chris Dyke and its Connectivity Manager Chris Ramsden were both on the APOC judging panel and realised the exciting potential of the product for transporting organs for transplant.  Chris Ramsden explored the idea with Dyecor and helped its team establish links with Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham – Europe’s largest liver transplant centre – and its transplant surgeons and other NHS transplant specialists.

HOW DID THERMACOOL BECOME REALITY?

Dyecor’s Rod Davidson explains: “We began with the idea of creating an absorbent moulding process to carry diagnostic samples – urine, blood and so on – and it seemed a logical extension for our product, so that it would be possible to package samples in this absorbent plastic, but also to transport them in a chilled condition.”

With the funding agreed from Advantage West Midlands within days and confirmed within just a few weeks, as well as “wonderful” support from Chris Ramsden, Dyecor concentrated development on the three principal areas that provided substantial marketing possibilities. One was the transport of high value medicines, many of which need to be kept refrigerated. “We are already in discussions with one of the largest pharmaceutical companies,” said Rod. “The second is stem cell transportation for the blood transfusion service, and the final application is organs for transplant. The issue here was that these vary in size, from several kilograms to just a few grams– so we have chosen the most widely used size, suitable for kidneys.

“We are in the process of having three prototypes for these applications produced and tested over the next six weeks.”
“When you are doing a prototype you are bound to come up with unexpected problems and the project did cost more,” said Rod. Nevertheless, the funding – and assistance of Chris Ramsden in particular – gave Dyecor a considerable kick-start in developing the product.

“MedilinkWM has been fantastic and Chris I would single out – he’s been an incredible help. He made valuable introductions for us and has been hugely enthusiastic. He has kept up a really good ongoing mentoring role with the company while we have been working on the product.”

AND THE RESULTS FOR DYECOR?

Dyecor’s work has already been recognised, winning the Queen’s Award for Innovation during the course of the Thermacool development. “We are a 30 employee business and our turnover is around £2 million. But to qualify for the Queen’s Award, you have to demonstrate three years of growth,” explains Rod. “We’d gone from zero to well over a million in the medical sector in a very short space of time and are now looking to develop the export market.

“We know we have a very high growth technology. There is a large synergy between Thermacor and Thermacool and the potential is massive, especially in the diagnostic field.

“This year will be tough but we anticipate growth at well over 50% a year.”

Almost all drugs need temperature control so the company is concentrating on finding licensees. “We’ve developed technology and licensed it to other companies for many years now, which has enabled us as a company to box above our weight,” said Rod.

“We’ve got a tiger by the tail – we’re a little company with a huge technology.”

For more information about Dyecor Limited, visit their website: http://www.dyecor.co.uk/ 

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