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Bio-Buzz No.10 / October 2007
IN THIS ISSUE
HEADLINE NEWS
INDUSTRY CORNER
EDITORIAL
EVENTS LISTINGS
Headline News
South West England Bio Gala Dinner
‘Globalisation and its impact on the South West biotechnology and medical technology industry.’
Key-note address from: James Wilsdon, Head of Science and Innovation, Demos
Date: 29th November 2007
Time: 6.30pm drinks, 7.00pm opening speech
Venue: The Grand Hotel, Torquay
Details: BioApproaches SW, Innovations Relay Centre South West; NHS Innovations South West, South West Regional Development Agency and UK Trade & Investment invite you to join them for their evening event.
The objective of the evening is to bring together key companies, organisations and academics involved in the biotechnology and medical technology sectors in the South West of England. The gala dinner will be launching a programme of sector-focused networking events, seminars and conferences over the next 18 months.
For more information and to register please click HERE
Telephone:- 0117 9008250
INDUSTRY CORNER
New Laboratory Competency Standards:
SEMTA (the Sector Skills Council for science, engineering and manufacturing technologies www.semta.org.uk) has been working to develop a new science standards framework. These standards are for those companies involved in biopharmaceutical research and development.
SEMTA are keen to receive input from as many companies as possible and are encouraging laboratory managers to respond to SEMTA with their views on the attached document. Please Click HERE to read the PDF (93.4K)
For further information please contact SEMTA project manager John Ryalls on telephone number 01275 462212 or email jryalls@semta.org.uk
EDITORIAL
Drivers and Benefits of Embedding EcoDesign into New Product Design
Customer pressures and regulatory requirements for EcoDesign of medical devices are increasing. At the same time, companies who adopt a best practice approach to embed EcoDesign into the new product design process can gain cost savings and marketing benefits.
Embedding EcoDesign into the new product design process provides an effective framework for managing compliance with the ever increasing list of product environmental regulatory requirements (e.g. Packaging Directive, RoHS Directive, WEEE Directive, REACH Regulations, EuP Directive).
Customer expectations for supplier environmental performance are increasingly being translated into ‘green procurement’ policies. In the UK for example, as part of its Sustainable Procurement Policy the NHS PASA plans to introduce more detailed procedures and guidance on sustainable procurement later in 2007. These will require detailed environmental requirements to be developed for each tender specification to reflect the significant environmental impacts associated with the particular contract, product, technology etc. Where relevant, the tender specification will also include requirements for environmental performance data (e.g. water consumption of a pathology analyser). The tender specifications may also set out ongoing environmental performance reporting requirements which may become contractual obligations (e.g. to improve the energy efficiency of products supplied under the contract by 5% during the lifetime of the contract). Specifying product environmental requirements will assist with whole life costing of equipment and enable health care trusts to work towards their environmental objectives, for example by selecting low carbon products to meet energy efficiency targets. The PASA Sustainable Development team is also working with the PASA Centre for Evidence Based Purchasing to develop environmental criteria which will be built into product evaluations and buyers guides for medical equipment.
By embedding EcoDesign in the New Product Design process as part of ‘good design practice’, companies can make significant cost savings. Case study examples at Siemens Medical show that application of IEC 60601-1-9 EcoDesign processes can reduce product costs by between 30% and 50%.
These drivers and benefits led to the development of the new International Standard IEC 60601-1-9 for Environmentally Conscious Design of Medical Electrical Equipment which was published in July 2007. This is a collateral standard to IEC 60601-1 and has been developed drawing on extensive practical experience at Philips Medical Systems and Siemens Medical Solutions.
To provide medical device manufacturers with a practical and cost-effective approach, ENVIRON launched the EcoDesign Best Practice Club for Medical Devices at the Electro-Medical Devices: Regulations and Standards Conference in London on Tuesday 18th September. The Club enables companies to integrate best practice EcoDesign and Product Stewardship procedures into their new product design processes, to gain the business benefits and achieve compliance with the new IEC 60601-1-9 standard.
Further details about the EcoDesign Best Practice Club for Medical Devices are available at www.Medical-EcoDesign.com
EVENTS LISTINGS
Covering Lifesciences (biotechnology) and Medical interests can be found at HERE
Contact Us
For further information on any of these items, please visit our website:
www.bioapproaches.co.uk or contact us directly.
Jade Fulbrook-Smith – Project Coordinator, BioBuzz Editor
Tel: 07715 856262 Email: Jade@BioApproaches.co.uk
Dr Pauline Lee – Network Manager
Tel: 07710 779548 Email: pauline@BioApproaches.co.uk
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