Sphere Medical opens new Welsh production facility

Sphere Medical was celebrating a major step forward for its product range on Thursday, with the opening of a new commercial production facility in St Asaph, Wales.

The AIM-traded provider of monitoring and diagnostic devices for use in critical care said the facilities included a cleanroom, providing the necessary capacity to meet the expected growing demand for its Proxima platform over the coming years.

Demand was expected to increase particularly at the end of this year with the launch of the Proxima 4, which was currently undergoing CE marking.

That product would make closer nursing possible during a patient's critical period, the company said, as well as faster and more frequent production of results and avoidance of blood loss and infection risks to a broader patient demographic.

Sphere described it as an important step towards realising the full market potential of Proxima.

"Today's official opening marks a significant moment for Sphere as we prepare to start commercial production; our dedicated sales force is now marketing Proxima directly to the critical care market and we were pleased to report news of our first sale of Proxima 3 in Germany last week", said Sphere Medical chief executive Dr Wolfgang Rencken.

The opening of the facility followed the successful financing of the company in April 2015, in which £13.2m was raised from investments including Woodford Asset Management and the Wales Fund.