Whitley County Targets Medical Packaging Companies

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Greater Fort Wayne Business Weekly

Whitley County Targets Medical Packaging Companies

Staff Reports

Friday, August 10, 2012, 8:30 am

The Whitley County Economic Development Corp. has launched an initiative to attract and develop a cluster of medical-focused packaging businesses, the organization’s president said.
 
“Regional market research confirmed that Whitley County is well-positioned for the development of a medical device and disposable-centered packaging concentration,” said President Alan Tio.
 
“All of the strategic elements — $8 billion worth of nearby medical device manufacturing operations, a state-of-the-art sterilization facility (Iotron Industries Inc.), strategic logistics capacity and location, an experienced work force and packaging-ready facilities and expertise — are already in place to build a profitable and growing packaging concentration.”
 
In a statement, Tio said medical-device and medical-disposable manufacturing companies in northeast Indiana often outsource their packaging needs to companies outside Indiana.
 
WCEDC is working with the Northeast Indiana Regional Partnership to rectify that.
 
“We have a number of specific (business) targets that we will be evaluating and reaching out to in the coming weeks and months,” Tio said.
 
John Sampson, president and CEO of the regional partnership, said: “The addition of packaging operations to an already robust medical-device sector would help to complete the total-package offering that the region can provide for companies across the United States and beyond.