French injection moulder Union Plastic (Saint-Didier-en-Velay / France; www.union-plastic.com), a unit of French group Omerin (Ambert; www.omerin.com), has acquired all shares in compatriot APE Medical (Château-Landon; www.ape-medical.fr), a device manufacturer for pharmaceutical, diagnostic and veterinary markets. According to Omerin, APE Medical has operated as a corporate unit of the subsidiary, Union Plastic, since 1 January 2022.

APE Medical operates injection moulding machines with clamping forces of 400 kN to 2,400 kN on a production area of 2000 m², which includes a 250 m² ISO7 cleanroom and a quality assurance system based on ISO 13485, according to Good Manufacturing Practices, and FDA approvals. Union Plastic has been part of the Omerin group since 2015 (see Plasteurope.com of 20.01.2015).

APE Medical has been in the plastic medical devices market for more than 30 years, supplying pharmaceutical and industrial diagnostic laboratories with products that include a full range of devices for drug transfer and dosing. It produces the very promising vial adapter, which is of particular interest in the growing vaccine sector.

The acquisition of APE comes after Omerin’s 2020 purchase of compatriot firm Prince Medical (Ercuis; www.prince-medical.com), which makes single-use medical devices from three production sites, including two in Tunisia. Omerin’s Healthcare division – comprising Prince Medical and Union Plastic – now has six production sites and 600 employees. The other segments in which the group operates, with a total of 15 production sites, 1,700 employees and annual sales of around EUR 260m (estimate for 2021), include the three areas of E&E cables, heating systems, and tubes and hoses.